Rolls-Royce unveiled a new, more efficient 787 engine variant yesterday at its main Farnborough press briefing. The Trent 1000-TEN (Thrust Efficiency New technology) leverages new technologies from the in-development XWB engine for the Airbus A350XWB. The more efficient Trent 1000-TEN will be rated for up to 78,000 pounds of thrust, enabling it to be used as a common powerplant for all Boeing 787 variants, namely the -8, -9 and, if it launched by the U.S. aircraft manufacturer, the -10X. Entry into service for the TEN engine is slated for the first half of 2016.

According to Rolls-Royce, the -TEN will have a 3-percent efficiency gain over the “package B” Trent 1000s that are now being delivered to customers. An interim 74,000-pound-thrust “package C” variant, which will have a more modest 1-percent efficiency improvement, is scheduled to enter service in early 2014 to coincide with initial deliveries of the 787-9.

The Trent 1000-TEN draws on various concepts developed for the Trent XWB and Advance 3 demonstrator programs. It borrows the “rising line” intermediate-pressure compressor, high-pressure compressor and blisk technologies from the XWB. From the Advance 3, the -TEN uses the advanced high-pressure turbine and refined air system, the latter of which automatically adjusts the cooling airflow via a design that uses no moving parts.

Thanks to these advances, Rolls-Royce maintains that the Trent 1000-TEN engine will “ensure the lowest ‘real-life’ fuel burn for every model of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner,” as well as provide “the lowest net fuel cost and carbon emissions.” The powerplant will deliver “the same Trent engine family dependability that our customers have come to expect,” noted Eric Schultz, president of Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace large engine programs.

To date, there are 10 Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787s in service that have completed more than 14,000 hours of operation (more than 4,000 passenger flights) with an engine dispatch reliability exceeding 99.9 percent. This is the best ever reliability figure for a widebody powerplant on entering service, according to Rolls-Royce.

The Trent 1000 has been selected in eight of the last nine 787 Dreamliner engine decisions and now has a total of 24 customers around the world.