The Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine is used to power the Boeing 787 aircraft used by All Nippon Airways and others. This engine has an interesting story to tell.
The first versions of this aircraft engine went into service in 2011 but became a bit problematic only a few short years later. All Nippon Airways (ANA) identified durability issues with the engine early, and by 2017, Rolls-Royce admitted there was an issue. The problem with this engine relates to blade erosion and cracking. This problem extended to nearly 500 engines across the fleet of 787s in use that had this engine.
Failure to fix the problem became a reputation
Rolls-Royce created Package B and C releases for the Trent 1000 engine, but these releases failed to bring reliability to this engine, which caused serious problems. Eventually, the company came up with a new engine called the Trent 1000 TEN, which incorporated elements from the newer Trent XWB and had very little in common with the original engine. The goal was for this new engine to replace the first model and be much more durable than the first. Unfortunately, by 2019, durability problems had been discovered in the TEN’s high-pressure turbine blades.
Were these problems too costly for Rolls to continue making airplane engines?
Most of us know Rolls-Royce as the highest luxury name in the entire automotive market. The troubles plaguing the Trent 1000 engines were predicted to cost the company about $3.1 billion. This could have been enough to put the boutique automotive brand out of business, but it didn’t. Pushing forward seemed to be a plan, and the company continued to search for ways to fix the problems to hopefully gain a reputation of reliability and durability for the Trent engine line.
Was the pandemic a blessing in disguise?
No one who lost family members during the pandemic would ever consider it a blessing of any type. That said, the global halt of travel gave Rolls-Royce an unexpected opening. Although the pandemic took millions of lives, caused huge financial issues around the world, and caused many businesses to shut down, it might have been exactly what the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine line requires.
Certifying the Trent 1000 blades became a much lower priority for the FAA than it would have normally been. With long-haul travel stunted, the FAA had bigger fish to fry. This downtime afforded Rolls-Royce the window of opportunity it required to fix the Trent 1000 engines. The company continued to work with its customers to make improvements and improve these engines to make them work better and become much more durable. The company made two final durability improvements with new blade designs for the Package B engine and a new design for the HPT blade for the Trent 1000 TEN engine.
Were these improvements enough for the Trent 1000 engine line?
Although Rolls-Royce could come out of the pandemic with the Trent 1000 engine line fixed with new blades, the reputational damage was already done. Air New Zealand switched to General Electric GEnx-1B engines to power its latest run of Boeing 787 aircraft. ANA also changed to the GE engine for its new order of 787s.
Before the end of 2022, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine was only found in about 33% of the 787 aircraft, with a decline expected over the next ten years. By the end of the decade, the share could decline to only 26% of the engines in these aircraft coming from Rolls-Royce. Initially, the Trent 1000 was supposed to be the engine of the Boeing 787, but forecasts show the GE engine could outnumber the Rolls-Royce models by 3,268 to 1,148 by 2031.
Growing confidence marks the return of this Rolls-Royce engine
Out of the aircraft running the Trent 1000 engines, nearly 250 of them use the Package B and C models, while 120 use the TEN. That might not sound like much, but the TEN is becoming a production standard, which means the fleet should grow over the next several years.
Most recently, Rolls-Royce has conducted tests using the Trent 1000 engine using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) during testing. These tests show the Trent 1000 is the most fuel-efficient engine in use for these large aircraft. This means the Trent 1000 TEN could be the engine of the future. So far, testing doesn’t show any technical issues when using SAF, and Rolls-Royce is committed to ensuring all Trent engines are compatible with this fuel.
This could put the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine at the front of the line as the standard engine used in future models of the Boeing 787.
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