Rolls-Royce hails important milestone for new engine

Rolls-Royce has announced it has successfully run its new UltraFan engine at maximum power using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

This important milestone for the UltraFan demonstrator, achieved on a testbed at its civil aerospace site in Derby, follows a successful first run earlier this year.

Since then, the UltraFan team has been gradually increasing the power as part of the rigorous testing regime.

Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive at Rolls-Royce, said: “Hitting full power with our UltraFan demonstrator sends a strong message that Rolls-Royce is at the cutting-edge of innovation and technology, leading the way in the transition to more efficient and sustainable aviation.

“This fantastic milestone puts us in a strong position to support the plans of our customers as they develop the next generation of super-efficient aircraft.”

Simon Burr, group director of engineering, technology and safety at Rolls-Royce, said: “We estimate that to reach Net Zero flying by 2050, a combination of highly-efficient, latest-generation gas turbines such as UltraFan operating on 100% SAF are likely to contribute around 80% of the total solution, which is why this announcement is such an important milestone for Rolls-Royce and the wider industry.”

According to Rolls-Royce, UltraFan delivers a 10% efficiency improvement over its Trent XWB, which is already the world’s most efficient large aero-engine in service.

UltraFan’s scalable technology also offers the potential to power the new narrowbody and widebody aircraft anticipated in the 2030s.

And as part of the UltraFan development programme, Rolls-Royce has identified a number of technologies that are potentially transferable to its current Trent engines, which will provide customers with even greater availability, reliability and efficiency.

Rolls-Royce said that the results of the most recent test, which took place at Testbed 80 – the world’s largest indoor aero-engine testing facility – will provide the firm with valuable learning and data, which its teams will now take away and continue to analyse.

In a statement, Rolls-Royce said: “This achievement reinforces our confidence in the suite of technologies that has been developed as part of the UltraFan programme.

“Testing the demonstrator is the culmination of many years work, which has been supported by the UK Government through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), Innovate UK; the EU’s Clean Sky programmes plus LuFo and the State of Brandenburg in Germany.”

UltraFan has been a decade in the making, with the concept unveiled publicly in 2014.

It is a fundamentally different design architecture to that within the 4,200 Rolls-Royce civil large engines currently in service, as it incorporates a geared design that no other industry player has produced at this size before.

Rolls-Royce said: “Demonstrating at this scale gives us the flexibility to scale down as required by our customers.

“It also puts us in the unique position of being able to offer a portfolio of two-shaft, three-shaft, direct drive and geared propulsion solutions to power future aircraft.”