Airbus and Rolls-Royce have signed an agreement to develop a higher thrust variant of the Trent XWB turbofan for the new A350-1000 aircraft.
Airbus CEO Tom Enders and his Rolls-Royce counterpart, John Rishton signed the agreement at the Paris Airshow on June 21. The enhanced Trent XWB will be capable of delivering up to 97,000lb of thrust on takeoff, with the extra thrust combining with an increasing takeoff weight capability of 308 tonnes to offer a 400nm range increase to the A350-1000’s original specifications.
“The higher thrust variant of the Trent XWB optimised for the A350-1000 incorporates further innovations from our Advance 3 technology demonstrator programs,” Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace president, Mark King said. “This has enabled us to offer our partner, Airbus, a new, higher thrust version of the engine with industry-leading levels of efficiency.”
Airbus announced the improvements to the A350-1000 on June 18.
