A new upgraded Trent XWB-84 engine is set to be certified later this year before entering service from 2025 to power Airbus A350-900s, according to Rolls-Royce.
Details about the new development, and news of further engine upgrades, were revealed during a press briefing at Rolls-Royce’s London headquarters last week, with AeroTime in attendance.
The Group Director of Engineering, Technology & Safety, Simon Burr, said that Rolls-Royce had been pursuing an improvement in fuel performance currently delivered by the highly successful XWB-84 engine.
With the new upgrades in place, the engine fuel efficiency will improve by 1% and help to further reduce CO2 emissions omitted by the XWB-84s currently in service.
Burr confirmed that almost all the testing had been completed and over 100 test flights successfully conducted.
To improve performance even further, a new innovative disc alloy developed by Rolls-Royce will be introduced on XWB-84 and XWB-97 engines next year.
Other enhancements to the XWB-84 include a new process which redistributes cooling air through the HPT blade, reducing temperature significantly.
Rolls-Royce have also been working to improve the Trent XWB-97 engine, in response to a drop in durability in hot and sandy environments where some of its customers are based.
New sand-resistant coatings are in production for delivery later this year and a modified HPT blade, with revised casting, will be used on XWB-97 engines to reduce metal temperature.
In addition, new upgrades to the Trent 7000, which power A330neos, should improve engine performance by up to 30% from 2026.
Issues with the Trent 1000 are also being tackled by Rolls-Royce engineers after the engine type “lost market share because it’s not sufficiently durable”, according to Burr.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has already certified upgrades to the Trent 1000 and flight tests are to begin in August 2025.