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Rolls-Royce and General Electric new engines ready to fly – Suppliers Share Wrap

Analysis

Developments of engines for the next generation of commercial aircraft are continuing, with Rolls-Royce and General Electric announcing several milestones this month.

Rolls-Royce ran its Trent XWB for the first time late last week. The new engine is promised to be 28% more efficient than previous generations of engines. As the sole powerplant for Airbus' new A350 XWB, more than 1,000 Trent XWBs have been ordered.

The new engines will be run on an Airbus A380 testbed next year and flight tests on an A350 XWB are scheduled for 2012. Seven development engines will be running by early 2011.

More than 2,400 Trent-family engines are in the Rolls-Royce order book. 224 Trent family engines across four Airbus and Boeing programmes were delivered in 2009, a record for the company.

Rolls-Royce civil aircraft engine deliveries

In addition to the Trent XWB, Roll-Royce's Trent 1000 engine is being readied for entry into service on Boeing's B787 at the end of this year. The B787 recently completed its 1,000th hour of test flying, with Boeing on schedule to deliver the first aircraft to launch customer, All Nippon Airways.

Boeing completed its first B787 test flight powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines last week. The GEnx engine has already completed more than 1,800 flying hours on the B747-8. The B787 features GEnx and Trent 1000 engines, although the GEnx has proved the more popular engine so far.

Rolls-Royce's shares eased 0.1% on Friday, while Boeing gained 1.0%.

Selected Aviation suppliers' daily share price movements (% change): 18-Jun-2010

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