Rolls-Royce Trent

Rolls Royce Trent is a family of high-bypass turbofan engine manufactured by Rolls-Royce, developments of the famous Rolls-Royce RB.211 with thrust ratings spanning between 53,000 to 95,000 lbf (236 to 423 kN). The name has also been used for a number of previous designs.

Earlier designations

Rolls-Royce Trent was the name originally given to Rolls-Royce to the world's first turboprop engine. It was based on original concept provided by Sir Frank Whittle. It was derived by mating a five-bladed propeller driven through a reduction gearbox by a Rolls-Royce Derwent II turbojet engine. It first flew on an experimental Gloster Meteor aircraft in the middle 1940s.

The designation is reused again in 1960's for the RB.203 bypass turbofan which was designed to replace the Rolls-Royce Spey. It was the first three spool engine, forerunner of the RB.211 series. It was rated at 9980 lbf (44.4 kN).

Present designation

The current Rolls-Royce Trent is the development of the three-shaft RB.211 family of engine. By 1987 the variant of the RB.211 , the RB.211-524L , had been developed to such an extent that it bore little resemblance to the original RB.211, other than the three-shaft layout. Rolls-Royce decided that the -524L shall be a basis of a new engine family, hence the newest Trent was born. Rolls-Royce had started naming their engines after English rivers in 1942 -- a practice which was revived after a thirty-year gap for the Trent.

The Trent's advanced layout provides lighter weight and better performance compared to the original RB.211 and other comparable competing engines. It features the wide-chord fan and single crystal high-pressure turbine blades inherited from later generations of RB.211, but with improved performance and durabilty.

Its core turbomachinery is brand new, giving better performance , noise and pollution levels. So good that it is retrofitted back to the RB211-524G/HT for better performace as compared to the original -524G and -524H. The Trent's advanced layout allows it to be fully scalable to the widest range of thrust of any current generation big turbofans.

Variants

Trent 500 Series

The Trent 500 family is designed to power the Airbus A340-500 and A340-600. It comes in 2 thrust ratings, 53,000 and 56,000 lbf (236 to 249 kN). The Trent 500 features a Trent 700 wide-chord fan together with a core scaled from the Trent 800.

Trent 600 Series

The Trent 600 family is designed to power the future Boeing 747 aircraft developments. It is actually a refinement of the original RB211-524L. Rolls Royce claims that it performs better than any current 747 engine.

Trent 700 Series

The Trent 700 family is designed to power the Airbus A330. It powers all variant of the A330. It features a fan with a diameter of 2.47 m. It comes in 2 thrust ratings, 67,500 and 71,000 lbf (300 to 316 kN). It entered service on Cathay Pacific A330 aircraft in March 1995.

Trent 800 Series

The Trent 800 family is designed to power the Boeing 777. It powers all variants of 777 except -200LR and -300ER.It comes with thrust ratings spanning 75,000 to 95,000 lbf (334 to 423 kN).

It features 2.89 m diameter fan. With its three-shaft configuration and hollow titanium wide-chord fan makes a Trent-powered Boeing 777 weigh up to 3.6 metric tons less than GE and Pratt & Whitney powered versions. It is the most popular 777 engine with 44% market share.

Trent 8104

Originally designed for 777-200LR/-300ER, it comes in 2 thrust ratings 104,000 and 114,000 lbf (463 to 507 kN) and has been tested up to 117,000 lbf (520 kN).

Rolls-Royce offered the 8104 to Boeing earlier than other manufacturers. However as Boeing decided to power the 777-200LR/-300ER exclusively by General Electric GE90, the 8104 is now a demonstrator engine. It featured swept-back fan blades and a host of new technologies such as contra-rotating spools.

Trent 900 Series

The Trent 900 family is designed to power the giant Airbus A380 where it is the launch engine. It comes in 2 thrust ratings 70,000 and 76,000 lbf (311 and 338 kN) but is capable of achieving 84,000 lbf (374 kN). It features a lot of technology inherited from the 8104 demonstrator including the 2.95 m diameter swept-back fan.

The Trent 900 made its maiden flight on May 17 2004 on Airbus' A340-300 testbed, replacing the port inner CFM56 and dwarfing the remaining engines. A380 customers which have selected the Trent include Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Singapore Airlines (already the largest Trent operator) and Lufthansa.

Trent 1000 Series

On April 6, 2004 Boeing announced that it had selected two engine partners for the Boeing 7E7, Rolls-Royce and General Electric. Initially, Boeing toyed with the idea of sole sourcing the powerplant for the 7E7, with GE the most likely candidate. However potential customers demanded choices and Boeing relented.

The Trent 1000 engine for the new aircraft brings the best value and lowest life cycle costs to airlines. It also demonstrated the soundness of the basic Trent architecture - the Trent 1000 is still an adapted Trent as opposed to its competitor the General Electric GENX, a totally brand new design.

The technology found in Trent 8104 demonstrator is used extensively. The Trent 1000 is a "bleed-less" design, with power offtake from the intermediate-pressure spool instead of high-pressure spool found in other members of the Trent family, to fulfill the Boeing requirements of a "more-electric" engine. Bypass ratio is increased by having swept-back fan, smaller fan hub which increases the fan effective diameter and by having contra-rotating high-pressure spool; all this increases the engine airflow. More monolithic parts are employed to reduce parts count for lower maintenance costs.

First run of the Trent 1000 is expected in early 2006. In June 2004 the first public engine selection was made by Air New Zealand, selecting the Trent for its 2 firm orders. The airline has options for 16 more 7E7s. In the most signifcant 7E7 order, that of Japan's All Nippon Airways, Rolls-Royce was selected as the engine supplier on October 13 2004. ANA's 50 firm aircraft order is the largest to date and has established RR as the leading engine supplier for the 7E7 programme. The deal is valued at $1Bn (£560m).

Both Rolls-Royce and General Electric have confirmed that they are in talks with Airbus with regard to supplying their new generation engines for any Airbus competitor to the 7E7, speculatively dubbed the Airbus A350.

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