Rolls-Royce is set to bow to airline pressure by building a new engine for the Airbus A350, a costly rethink of strategy for Europe's newest airliner, aviation industry sources said on Monday.
The plan would involve a major overhaul of Rolls-Royce's largest civil jet engine and give the Airbus A350 some missing muscle to compete with Boeing's popular long-range 777-300ER.
Two smaller versions of the A350 will broadly compete with Boeing's revolutionary new 787 Dreamliner from 2013 onwards.
But airlines have criticized a one-size-fits-all policy that they say would leave the third and largest model, the A350-1000, unable to reach its goal of competing with the popular Boeing 777-300ER mini-jumbo because it is saddled with the same engine.
"My understanding is that Rolls-Royce has agreed to build a new engine," the chief executive of a major A350 customer told Reuters at an IATA airlines industry event on Monday.
Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined comment.
A new engine typically costs up to $2 billion to develop, according to engine industry executives.
In the first glimpse of a strategy change in November, a source familiar with the project told Reuters that Rolls was looking at two variants of the same engine. [ID:nLDE6AS0AU]
But it remained unclear how many components would be shared between old and new models or who would pay for the upgrade.
The Trent XWB is the latest and physically largest member of the Rolls engine family that powers the world's biggest jets.
With a fan wider than Concorde's fuselage and built to devour more than a tonne of air every second, the engine claims to be among the most powerful and flexible in civil aviation.
But engines are designed to work most efficiently in a set band of thrust and critics have said the Trent XWB would find it difficult to operate efficiently across three types of A350. On top of that, they want the A350-1000 to fly further with more weight, straining the single engine policy even further.
One of the world's most influential aircraft buyers, leasing magnate Steven Udvar-Hazy, said he expected Airbus to modify its plans for the A350-1000 and that this could lead to delays.
trent xwB on field
The plan would involve a major overhaul of Rolls-Royce's largest civil jet engine and give the Airbus A350 some missing muscle to compete with Boeing's popular long-range 777-300ER.
Two smaller versions of the A350 will broadly compete with Boeing's revolutionary new 787 Dreamliner from 2013 onwards.
But airlines have criticized a one-size-fits-all policy that they say would leave the third and largest model, the A350-1000, unable to reach its goal of competing with the popular Boeing 777-300ER mini-jumbo because it is saddled with the same engine.
"My understanding is that Rolls-Royce has agreed to build a new engine," the chief executive of a major A350 customer told Reuters at an IATA airlines industry event on Monday.
Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined comment.
A new engine typically costs up to $2 billion to develop, according to engine industry executives.
In the first glimpse of a strategy change in November, a source familiar with the project told Reuters that Rolls was looking at two variants of the same engine. [ID:nLDE6AS0AU]
But it remained unclear how many components would be shared between old and new models or who would pay for the upgrade.
The Trent XWB is the latest and physically largest member of the Rolls engine family that powers the world's biggest jets.
With a fan wider than Concorde's fuselage and built to devour more than a tonne of air every second, the engine claims to be among the most powerful and flexible in civil aviation.
But engines are designed to work most efficiently in a set band of thrust and critics have said the Trent XWB would find it difficult to operate efficiently across three types of A350. On top of that, they want the A350-1000 to fly further with more weight, straining the single engine policy even further.
One of the world's most influential aircraft buyers, leasing magnate Steven Udvar-Hazy, said he expected Airbus to modify its plans for the A350-1000 and that this could lead to delays.
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