Why The Trent’s Latest Variant Is Changing The Mood At Rolls-Royce

Proven gains on the A350-900 new engines is giving a positive boost to Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce has a new spring in its step as favorable results from its latest variant of the Trent XWB engine family completes a year in service.

Like all aero engine OEMs, the UK manufacturer has been facing a torrid time in recent years with supply chain woes, manufacturing bottlenecks, issues with new generation engines and demands from airlines to reduce operating costs and improve sustainability targets.

But with a year on the wing of launch customers, the Trent XWB-84EP is receiving glowing accolades for its fuel economy and other environmental benefits.

The EP stands for enhanced performance, and tests had indicated the new variant would bring a 1% improvement in fuel burn. While 1% may not sound like a lot when it converts into dollars, that would bring savings of $5 million each year to a small to medium Airbus A350-900 operator.

After 12 months flying with Delta in the US, the data showed the results were even better.

“So, what's great for us and cause for a celebration, is that what the data is actually showing is a 1.8 percent fuel improvement in efficiency,” said Celine Bouas, senior vice president Customers, Europe for Rolls-Royce.

“1.8% - that's $9 million per year on a midsize fleet. Again, if you think that you're keeping an aircraft 12 years to 25 years in your fleet, especially now with a supply and demand imbalance, and airlines keeping the aircraft longer in fleet, that is, that is a substantial cost saving.

“So, imagine if you're Turkish, if you're Air France or Delta, with a very large fleet, this is a substantial impact and positive impact, and that's just fuel.”

Rolls-Royce has exclusivity on powering the Airbus 350. Something that is a cause of complaint from some airlines. But Bouas believes it is the key to continual improvements.

“Exclusivity is really powerful and a great lever when you develop enhancements. Why? Because quite simply, you need to know the size of the market you're going to address when you have to take investment decisions,” Bouas said.  “Developing these product improvements can cost half a billion dollars, a billion, a billion and a half. We have announced a number of improvements in Rolls-Royce on the product, and we have delivered and are delivering on all of them.”

Pete Young, now the chief engineer on the Trent 7000 program, was chief engineer on the Trent XWB-84EP for the development and test program.

“We looked at the Trent XWB 84 and how it's performing with all of its millions of flying hours in service with our customers, and we said, how could we improve that? So we looked at the thermodynamic cycle, we looked how we could optimize the performance of the engine cycle at a whole engine level, but then we also thought about how could we introduce aerodynamic improvements and use those to really optimize the performance of the product,” Young said.

According to Bouas the additional benefits make a great difference.

“We can see now that the engine is two decibels quieter than the initial XWP 84 engine,” Bouas said.  “it's important for people and the environment around the airport to start with, especially in Europe, where you have very dense population.”

There are also benefits for a quieter cabin that relates to passenger satisfaction.

Improvements are in the Rolls-Royce DNA, according to Young. “Our founder, Sir Henry Royce, said, ‘take the best that exists and make it better', and we really made that our mantra for this project.

The business transformation that is underway is seeing that mantra roll-out across the group.

Chief Engineer for the Trent XWB Programs, Phil Curnock said: “Our major programs now are executed in quite a different way to the way they used to be."

“We're much more efficient. We're much more focused on the output and the outcome, making sure that our programs really deliver for our customers and hit the numbers - be it fuel burn, be it durability, whatever it is our customer needs.”

And across the board, the changing culture and results is having an impact on the Rolls-Royce people.

“It's pride, it's pride through the team,” said Bouas. “Because it’s proof that Rolls Royce can make the best engines on the market. Air France has been saying quite publicly that the XWB 84 is the best engine on the market, and you take the best and you make it even better. It's what we're doing.”

According to Curnock, the mood is better in the company now than ever he can recall.

“It helps that we're doing well financially, but more than that, there's some really exciting projects coming on. Bringing technology into the XWB is just one of the things we're doing. If you look broader across the Rolls Royce, you know what we're doing with small nuclear reactors (SMRs), and what we're bringing to the market almost everywhere you look in the different sectors of Rolls Royce - it's all very positive.”