The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine being developed for the Airbus A350-1000 widebody made its first flight test today on the European airframer’s A380 flying test bed. The aircraft took off from the Airbus factory in Toulouse and flew 4 hours and 14 minutes, during which time it covered a wide range of power settings at altitudes of up to 35,000 feet. The new turbofan’s operation and handling qualities were evaluated from low speeds up to Mach 0.87.

The flight testing of the 97,000-pound thrust engines started nine months before the planned first flight of the new A350-1000. The 120-flight-hour program will include evaluation in hot weather, as well as in icing conditions. The Trent XWB-97 development engine was mounted on the A380’s inner left engine pylon, replacing one of the aircraft’s Trent 900 turbofans. As well as demonstrating operability and performance, the tests will confirm the engine relight envelope. Subsequent tests will concentrate on maturity tests, including further thermal-endurance and cyclic trials.

Rolls Royce has already ground-run the Trent XWB-97 at up to 99,000 pounds thrust, having previously demonstrated 112,000-pounds thrust with an earlier -84 variant during "blade-out" testing. It also has completed icing and X-ray testing.

Meanwhile, production rates for the regular Trent XWB-84s for current A350-900s will accelerate from 2^.6 a week now to 4^.9/week in late 2017 (including, by then, about one Trent XWB-97/week) to meet Airbus plans for a 10 aircraft/month production rate for the A350.