Rolls-Royce Completes UltraFan 30 Concept Review

Rolls-Royce is progressing toward the final design of its upcoming UltraFan 30 engine demonstrator, a scaled-down variant of its widebody-sized UltraFan 80, as the latter is readied to resume ground testing later this year.

Speaking to reporters in early July, Rolls-Royce head of demonstrator programs for research and technology Jeremy Hughes said the company completed a concept review for the UltraFan 30 in June. The upcoming test engine—set to deliver around 30,000 pounds of thrust—will complement its larger experimental sibling, which aims to deliver 80,000 pounds of thrust. Rolls-Royce plans to begin ground testing the UltraFan 30 demonstrator in 2028. 

“We see the architecture being identical at 20 paces, but not everything scales,” explained Hughes. “The team is heavily embedded and working through that as we speak.” Specifically, he highlighted that the UltraFan 30’s addition of shorter inlets builds on Rolls-Royce’s “comprehensive program” of work with Boeing under the FAA’s CLEEN (Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise) program, augmented by fan aerodynamics and inlet testing being conducted in the Netherlands. The UltraFan 30 concept is set to use an existing core from a Pearl 10X engine, something Hughes said is a good fit in terms of both size and architecture.

According to Hughes, the scale of the UltraFan 30 fits in with Rolls-Royce’s goal to “continue to invest in technology…to protect markets at widebody [scale] and create the opportunity for Rolls-Royce to re-enter the narrowbody sector.” However, he stressed that despite its two distinct iterations, UltraFan remains “an umbrella program” focused on the technological development and advancement of ducted-engine technology.

Meanwhile, the larger UltraFan 80—which conducted its initial ground test campaign in 2023—is soon set to be back in action at Rolls-Royce’s Derby facility. Hughes confirmed that Rolls-Royce has “just about completed all the parts,” with the gearbox recently married to the core. Up next, the fan case will be refitted before the assembly returns to Testbed 80 by the end of the year. Notable modifications include “some fairly significant changes through the low-pressure system” and a new centerline core alongside a scaled-down power gearbox, which Hughes said is “one of the areas [the company] is looking at significantly.” Nevertheless, he suggested Rolls-Royce had always intended to de-risk the architecture through “a number of builds to explore different spaces.”

Although flight testing is outside the scope of the immediate project, in March 2026, Rolls-Royce secured €64 million ($73 million) in funding from the EU’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking to lead the UNIFIED (Ultra Novel and Innovative Fully Integrated Engine Demonstrations) collaborative research project. Alongside supporting the development and planned ground testing of the UltraFan 30 demonstrator, the EU also noted that this funding would help “establish a credible pathway towards future flight test.”

While Hughes maintained that the company doesn’t yet need to make a decision as to a potential platform, timelines for a first flight could be toward the end of the decade. Looking to potential commercial applications for the UltraFan learnings, “our view is that step change in technology and performance probably warrants a new aircraft,” said Rob Watson, president of civil aerospace. Additionally, while Rolls-Royce acknowledged that it could pursue a commercialized variant of the technology independently, it is currently looking at a range of options around potential partnerships. This, said Watson, would be the preferable pathway.

Rolls-Royce remains confident that its 2010 decision to pursue the ducted concept—as opposed to competitors’ open-rotor ambitions—remains the “right balance of maturity, and risk and reward for the market sector as we look forward,” Hughes added. Although he acknowledged there was “clearly some debate” overall, he suggested that Rolls-Royce “has a strong position, and we believe that ducted turbo-machinery has a lot further to give.” And with “protecting” a position in the widebody market crucial to the company’s forward strategy, “I don’t see any conversations about an un-ducted solution taking 400 people and flying them across the Pacific,” he concluded.