UK aero engine maker Rolls-Royce has welcomed Ethiopian Airlines as the prospective latest operator for the Trent 1000 engine, along with two other new customers in the past 12 months—France’s Air Austral and El Al of Israel—and a repeat order from Norwegian Airlines. Air China and Air Europa have introduced Trent 1000 (T1000)-powered 787 services this year, while Ethiopian was expected to introduce its first 787 this month.

The manufacturer (Chalet D3, Hall 4 Stand B18) also is looking forward to flight-testing the latest Trent 1000-TEN (for Thrust, Efficiency and New-technology) aboard the Boeing 787 and formal certification of that sub-variant, as the T1000 fleet passes 2 million engine flight-hours (EFH) and around 450,000 engine cycles. Project director Gary Moore says that Pack B and C upgrades are demonstrating good reliability.

Taking account of the improvements, the new T1000-TEN will deliver all of its performance requirements, according to Moore. The new 76,000-pound-thrust model introduces several features developed for the Airbus A350’s more-powerful Trent XWB, including a “rising-line” compressor and three-stage bladed disc (“blisk”) at the front of the high-pressure compressor.

R-R says that on flights of up to 3,000 miles the -TEN is expected to offer a specific fuel consumption advantage of some 3 percent, although this differential decays over longersectors. For flights of average 787 range, the basic T1000 delivers a fuel-burn advantage “well ahead” of the GEnx-1B at shorter ranges, according to R-R. An “additional 1 percent” is said to accrue from superior performance retention through the life of theengine.

Dispatch reliability up to March was 99.9 percent (and 99.93 percent for Pack C models), compared with an “unforgiving” market expectation, according to Moore. The math associated with R-R’s reported in-flight shutdown (IFSD) rate of 0.002/1,000 EFH suggests there have been four such events, while Moore reports no high-speed aborted take-offs.

R-R is working closely with the European Aviation Safety Agency to complete certification reports and analysis. It has agreed with Boeing on the following: type certification, flight compliance engineering, and stability auditing to show the engine’s envelope before Boeing pilots see it demonstrated on the Rolls-Royce 747 flying testbed. The stability audit (to check pressure margins) was completed on the seventh T1000-TEN (Engine serial number [ESN] 11007), which was then replaced by ESN 11008 to fly the production standard bill of materials.

Moore said that the Pack C improvement have provided “a great configuration,” and that R-R has ensured it has “taken the time to repeat on the T1000-TEN what we had done before” on other engines. Part of this exercise has seen further work on ESN 11002, which has been used to establish sea-level performance, to confirm that the -TEN has inherited the best characteristics of the earlier Tent XWB.

Similarly, ESN 11003—used in altitude performance, crosswind and icing tests—has repeated the exercises “to ensure robustness,” said Moore. ESN 11005, a T1000-TEN earmarked for extended-range, twin-engine operations (ETOPS), has begun the work, which is expected to receive approval by the end of this year, with 3,000 flight-cycles expected to have been logged by entry into service.

Meanwhile, T1000-TEN ESN 11007 had recorded more than 200 FH during 39 flights by the second half of June in what Moore characterizes as a “very challenging program.” ESN 11008 is the first example whose assembly has moved to production part numbers.

The initial flight-compliant units were dispatched to Boeing two months ago and are being prepared for flight test by the airframe manufacturer. While Moore would clearly like to see the T1000-TEN airborne on a 787 within three months of having been shipped to Everett in May, he settled for saying that the challenge is “to fly on the 787 in the time frame of this quarter.”

The T1000 was the engine that powered the 787 maiden flight in 2009 and its service entry in October 2011, was the initial certificated engine on both the 787-8 and -9, and was the first 787 engine approved for 330-minute ETOPS (extended twin-engine operations). Now, Moore is keen to see the latest variant becoming the first to power the stretched, short-range787-10.

Regarding recent Trent 1000 customers, according to aircraft-production weblog All Things 787, recent T1000-powered Dreamliner deliveries have included the first 787-8 for Air Austral (Line Number 22, an early-build aircraft and the first such shipment for about a year) and the initial 787-9 for Air China. Subject to last-minute U.S. Exim Bank (or alternative Wall Street) support for finance arrangements, the first of six more early-build aircraft (all in the range LN 10-18) was prepared for late June handover to Ethiopian Airlines, previously a customer for 13 General Electric GEnx-powered 787s.

El Al, the other recent T1000 customer, has three 787-9s on order, all undelivered. (Also, the 47th and last 787-8 for launch operator All Nippon Airways was delivered in May.)

Having unveiled its first Seletar-assembled T1000 engine last year, R-R is planning to accelerate Singapore production of the engine variant as it expands activity in Asia/Pacific. It also is preparing to transfer manufacture of T1000 fan cases to UMW Aerospace in Malaysia in the coming five years, reducing pressure on its UK factory at Ansty, which will concentrate on other engines.

Under the company’s strategy to set up a supply chain closer to customers in developing regions, R-Rhas a 25-year agreement covering manufacture, assembly and supply of T1000 fan-case assemblies with UMW Aerospace, a subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate UMW.