Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Rolls-Royce today joined celebrations to mark Finnair becoming the first European airline to operate the Airbus A350 XWB, powered by the world's most efficient large civil aero engine, the Trent XWB.

A formal aircraft handover ceremony took place today at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France. The aircraft, the airline's first ever to be powered by Rolls-RoyceTrent engines, will fly to Helsinki later today.

The Rolls-RoyceTrent XWB is the only engine that powers the A350 XWB and more than 1,500 engines have already been sold to 40 customers.

The A350 XWB delivers a 25 per cent fuel burn improvement compared to previous generation aircraft. The Trent XWB is also one of the quietest engines that Rolls-Roycehas ever produced for the wide-body market.

The engine, which powered the first A350 XWB to go into service at the start of this year, is the result of years of research and development and advanced engineering of more than 20,000 parts.

Pekka Vauramo, Chief Executive Officer, Finnair, said: 'As one of the first operators of the A350 XWB, we look forward to providing our passengers with outstanding service using state-of-the-art engines that combine the best in both efficiency and reliability.'

Fabrice Bregier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Airbus, said: 'At Airbus, we're proud and delighted to see Finnair, one of the world's oldest and most respected airlines, become the first European airline to fly the A350. The A350's unrivalled fuel efficiency and passenger comfort make it the perfect aircraft to spearhead Finnair's Asian expansion.'

Eric Schulz, President - Civil Large Engines, Rolls-Royce, said: 'We are very proud to be with Finnair and Airbus today to mark another chapter in the A350 XWB story. The Trent XWB exemplifies how we take the best in technology to deliver new standards of excellence. Today marks the start of a new era in our relationship with Finnair and we look forward to working with them for many years to come.'

Finnair has ordered a total of 19 A350 XWBs.

Trent XWB - incredible engineering by numbers:

  • The front fan is nearly 10ft feet across - its diameter is larger than the fuselage of Concorde
  • It sucks in up to 1.3 tonnes of air, the equivalent of a squash court, every second at take-off.
  • The force on a fan blade at take-off is equivalent to a load of almost 90 tons, the same as nine London buses hanging off each blade.
  • High pressure turbine blades inside the engine rotate at 12,500 rpm, with their tips reaching 1,200mph - twice the speed of sound.
  • At take off each of the engine's 68 high pressure turbine blades generates around 900 horsepower per blade - the equivalent to that of a Formula One racing car.
  • At full power, air leaves the nozzle at the back of the engine travelling at almost 1000mph.

High-res photographs are available at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rolls-royceplc/sets/72157644914196343/

Library broadcast-quality footage of Trent XWB production and testing plus interviews with Rolls-Royceexecutives on the importance of the engine to the company, are available at: http://www.imageresourcemedia.com/broadcast/streaming_site/pages/Trent_XWB.htm

  1. Rolls-Royce's vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
  2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
  3. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
    • Customer - placing the customer at the heart of our business
    • Concentration - deciding where to grow and where not to
    • Cost - continually looking to increase efficiency
    • Cash - improving financial performance.
  5. Annual underlying revenue was £14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £76.5 billion at 30 June 2015.
  6. In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royceengineers at the forefront of scientific research.
  7. Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
  8. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-RoyceSTEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.

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