Click Here to View This Page on Production Frontend
Click Here to Export Node Content
Click Here to View Printer-Friendly Version (Raw Backend)
Note: front-end display has links to styled print versions.
Content Node ID: 389216
Rolls-Royce is making final preparations to start testing its new “Advance 3” engine core, meant to form the basis of its future large powerplants. Testing will take place using a hybrid engine based on a combination of the Trent XWB-84 fan system and Trent 1000 low pressure turbine. Rolls says it designed the Advance 3 to establish a new “scaleable” architecture.
Assembly of the first Advance 3 engine core started last month and “is progressing well” at the company’s Bristol facility in the UK; the company will move the core to its main base in Derby, England, to start testing in mid-2017.
Unveiled in 2014, the Advance program will also play a part in future UltraFan (including possible Open Rotor) applications. Meanwhile, testing of the first prototype Power Gear Box (PGB), which Rolls describes as “the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox” capable of producing up to 100,000 horsepower, has neared completion at the UK-based company’s German facility in Dahlewitz, near Berlin. The three-foot-diameter PGB, along with a range of other new technology including a new lean-burn combustor, will allow 20-percent efficiency improvements within a conventional engine layout and a 25-percent improvement in an UltraFan, the later iteration of the architecture. Although the company has not identified the first application, Rolls expects to ready Advance for entry into service in some form by 2020 and in an UltraFan engine by 2025. It hopes that the PGB could use engine oil for simplicity but said it would not rule out the need to use a different oil in the final design, given the extreme challenge such a gearbox presents. “It needs to be able to operate on a hot summer’s day in the Middle East,” Mike Whitehead, chief engineer and head of the UltraFan program, told journalists during a press visit to Dahlewitz in late March.
Phil Curnock, chief engineer of civil aerospace strategy and future programs, added that finding a first application depends on aircraft manufacturers’ requirements, and no company has issued an RFP yet. He explained that Rolls designed the architecture to be as mature as possible ahead of the identification of an application, allowing for a shorter development time for the final production engines.
The gearbox uses five planetary gears and allows for a slower fan but a core that can operate at higher, more optimal speeds. (The ratio equals 4:1 with identically sized sun gear and planets.) The outer gear, also known as the ring gear, will not move relative to the engine. Friedrichshafen, Germany-based ATT (Aerospace Transmission Technologies), a joint venture Rolls formed with Liebherr especially to develop the PGB, has performed much of the development.
The fan under development for Advance is made of carbon/titanium (CTi); Rolls has already gone through four generations of blade and more than 50 birdstrike tests. It has also completed a flight-test campaign in Tucson, Arizona. Current testing takes the blade beyond 120 inches in diameter, aimed at developing a mature fan technology for mating with the core and PGB at Derby.
Curnock said UltraFan also remains “on track” for demonstrator concept freeze “later this year,” while schedules call for the start of flight testing in 2021 and the possibility of first application entry-into-service around 2025.
He also described technology development efforts at Rolls-Royce for possible future aircraft that could include hybrid-electric aircraft, embedded propulsion systems and possible distributed propulsion using electric motors. A new Rolls-Royce/Airbus-backed Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) opened at Cranfield University in England on January 24 to encourage a more “collaborative approach” with airframers to define possible future airframe/engine configurations, Curnock said.
Rolls-Royce is making final preparations to start testing the “Advance 3” engine core meant to form the basis of its future large engines. Testing will take place using a hybrid engine that combines the Trent XWB-84 fan and Trent 1000 low-pressure turbine. Rolls says it designed the Advance 3 to establish a new “scaleable” architecture.
Assembly of the first Advance 3 engine core started in March and “is progressing well” at the company’s Bristol facility in the UK; Rolls will move the core to its main base in Derby to start testing in the middle of the year.
Unveiled in 2014, the Advance program will also play a part in future UltraFan (including possible open-rotor) applications. Meanwhile, testing of the first prototype power gearbox (PGB), which Rolls describes as “the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox” capable of handling up to 100,000 horsepower, has neared completion at the UK-based company’s German facility in Dahlewitz, near Berlin. The three-foot-diameter PGB, along with a range of other new technology such as a new lean-burn combustor, will allow 20-percent efficiency improvements within a conventional engine layout and a 25-percent improvement in an UltraFan, the later iteration of the architecture. Although the company has not identified the first application, Rolls expects to ready Advance for entry into service in some form by 2020 and in an UltraFan by 2025. It hopes that the PGB could use engine oil for simplicity but said it would not rule out the need to use a different oil in the final design, given the extreme challenge such a gearbox presents. “It needs to be able to operate on a hot summer’s day in the Middle East,” Mike Whitehead, chief engineer and head of the UltraFan program, told journalists during a press visit to Dahlewitz in late March.
Phil Curnock, chief engineer of civil aerospace strategy and future programs, added that finding a first application depends on aircraft manufacturers’ requirements, and no company has issued an RFP yet. He explained that Rolls designed the architecture to be as mature as possible ahead of the identification of an application, with the goal of shortening development time for final production engines.
The gearbox uses five planetary gears and allows for a lower fan speed but a core that can operate at higher, more efficient speeds. (The ratio is 4:1 with identically sized sun gear and planets.) The outer gear, also known as the ring gear, will not move relative to the engine. Friedrichshafen, Germany-based ATT (Aerospace Transmission Technologies), a joint venture Rolls formed with Liebherr especially to develop the PGB, has performed much of the development.
The fan under development for Advance is made of carbon/titanium (CTi); Rolls has already gone through four generations of blade and 50 birdstrike tests. It has also completed a flight-test campaign in Tucson, Ariz. Current testing takes the blade beyond 120 inches in diameter, aimed at developing mature fan technology for mating with the core and PGB at Derby.
Curnock said UltraFan remains “on track” for demonstrator concept freeze “later this year,” while schedules call for the start of flight-testing in 2021 and the possibility of first application entry-into-service around 2025.
He described technology development efforts at Rolls-Royce for possible future aircraft that could include hybrid-electric aircraft, embedded propulsion systems and possible distributed propulsion using electric motors. A new Rolls-Royce/Airbus-backed Aerospace Integration Research Centre opened at Cranfield University in England on January 24 to encourage a more “collaborative approach” with airframers to define possible future airframe/engine configurations, Curnock said.