Engines
Rolls-Royce Steps Up Investments As Revenues Rise
With the first version of the Trent XWB engine certified, Rolls-Royce can give more attention to developing the more powerful Trent XWB-97 for Airbus’s increased weight A350XWB-1000, as well as the Trent 1000-Ten for Boeing’s 787. (Photo: Rolls-Royce)
With the first version of the Trent XWB engine certified, Rolls-Royce can give more attention to developing the more powerful Trent XWB-97 for Airbus’s increased weight A350XWB-1000, as well as the Trent 1000-Ten for Boeing’s 787. (Photo: Rolls-Royce)

The recent completion of European certification of Rolls-Royce’s Trent XWB not only boosted Airbus’s efforts to fly its new A350XWB widebody in the first half of this year, it freed the UK-based engine maker to turn its attention to the Trent XWB-97 turbofan, designed to power the longer-range A350-1000 (the standard 84,000-pound-thrust Trent XWB powers the -800 and -900 versions). Rated to produce 97,000 pounds of thrust, the XWB-97 will, according to Rolls-Royce, run more efficiently than any engine it has ever built.