Engines
Rolls-Royce Advances Toward UltraFan
UK engine maker Rolls-Royce is pushing ahead with advanced turbofan engine designs for future platforms, with greatly improved efficiency.
Titanium-aluminide low-pressure turbine blades and proposed cooling arrangements on Rolls-Royce’s proposed future UltraFan engine may owe much to the RB3025 powerplant unsuccessfully offered to power the Boeing 777X. For example, the RB3025 featured a “vortex amplifier” to simplify turbine-blade cooling with HPC air.
Titanium-aluminide low-pressure turbine blades and proposed cooling arrangements on Rolls-Royce’s proposed future UltraFan engine may owe much to the RB3025 powerplant unsuccessfully offered to power the Boeing 777X. For example, the RB3025 featured a “vortex amplifier” to simplify turbine-blade cooling with HPC air.

New engines planned by Rolls-Royce (R-R) reflect recent powerplant trends, including steadily increasing propulsive efficiency obtained with larger-diameter fans, higher bypass ratios and smaller engine cores. The engines could power updated contemporary widebody platforms, with R-R civil large engines president Eric Schulz confirming “very live” discussions with Airbus. “If it decides to re-engine the A330 or A380, we will be here to provide support,” he said during a pre-show briefing.