In early August, a production standard ‘Package A’ Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine suffered an engine failure while on the test stand at the company’s Derby, UK facility. The ‘Package A’ engines do not incorporate upgrades planned for the ‘Package B’ engines, which will bring the specific fuel consumption target within 1% of planned spec.
Rolls-Royce says: “We have had an engine failure on a test bed in Derby. We are now investigating in detail and have made good progress in understanding the issue. We do not anticipate any impact on the programme.”
Industry sources say the failure, which is believed to have been uncontained, occurred in early August on a production ‘Package A’ model Trent 1000 engine that will power early 787-8 aircraft for launch customer All Nippon Airways, and has been initially traced to the single-stage intermediate pressure (IP) turbine. The IP turbine in conjunction with the IP compressor supplies the electrical power for the 787’s systems.
Boeing has yet to comment on the event, but it appears that 787 flight testing will not be impacted. ZA001 through ZA004 are all powered by the ‘Package A’ Trent 1000s. ZA004 will be outfitted with the ‘Package B’ engines later in the flight test program.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.