Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Mark Wagner [68]
The overall Trent 1000 program was to involve sixteen engines plus at least two spares. Seven were destined for ground tests, most of which were to undergo multiple rebuilds, while a further engine was destined for the flying test bed. A further eight were destined for the first four 787 test aircraft plus a further two for spares.
Rolls-Royce also completed the selection of its risk-and-revenue-sharing partners on the Trent 1000 with the addition of Spain’s Industria de Turbo Propulsores, S.A. (ITP), as the sixth member. The announcement took partner shares to 35 percent. As with previous Trent programs, ITP was responsible for assembly of the LP turbine module. Other Trent 1000 partners by now included Goodrich, Hamilton Sundstrand, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, and Carlton Forge Works. “Beyond that we’ve finished sourcing the rest of the engine, and we’re now driving it hard to get parts in for the November start of assembly of the first engine,” said Horwood.
POWERING UP
Assembly of the first Trent 1000 officially commenced in Derby on November 7, 2005, just eleven days ahead of GE beginning the buildup of the first GEnx in the United States. “We’re starting with the assembly of the IP compressor and HP compressor, and we will have all the modules built up by the end of the year,” said Horwood later that month. In December Rolls “dressed” the fan case, and in January it “stacked” the core before mating it with the fan case prior to the start of engine tests in February. The first engine in the test effort was used primarily for LP system evaluation. Engine number two was aimed at IP system work, while the third engine formed the focus for HP system work. A fourth engine also went to the AEDC in Tullahoma, for altitude and icing tests. Although originally set to go there earlier in 2006, Rolls-Royce rescheduled it for later in the year “due to availability constraints.” This suited the program better, said Horwood. “So when an opportunity arose to send the engine to AEDC a little later in the program, we took it: the benefit of sending it later is that we’ll have that much more development running under our belt, allowing us to really focus on the testing we perform at this facility.”
General Electric’s GEnx test effort was as much about convincing airlines as it was the certification authorities that the advanced features were safe and reliable. By March 2006, with the first engine running, GE sensed that the tide was turning. GEnx Program General Manager Tom Brisken said, “Operators are getting more confident. At first when we started telling them about the composite fan case, the TAPS and Ti-Al some were quite concerned—but after two and one-haf years of technology demonstration maturation programs, we have satisfied them. We have performed more than seven thousand hours of technology component testing on fifty different maturation tests.”
Overall the original plan involved a dedicated core, engine 000, plus seven full test powerplants. Engine 000 was used for HP turbine stress and HP compressor performance measurement, while the first engine to test, 001, was set to assess performance, crosswind work, and vibration. This engine was later sacrificed in the destructive “blade-out” test in 2007. Engine 002, distinguished by noise-reducing chevrons, also was the first to be fitted with all the production hardware and was used for emissions, LP turbine stress work, and endurance running. This latter task made it one of the longest-serving engines in the certification program. Engine 003 also was used for endurance work as well as vibration, bird strike, ice, and water ingestion tests. Engine 004 was to perform the all-important 150-hour “triple redline” block test in which the engine ran for sustained periods of simulated flight cycles of up to 6 hours, at operating limits well beyond normal. Engine 005 was destined for flight tests. The seventh engine was set to undergo emissions and full-icing testing.
Water ingestion tests put a volume of rain equivalent to a torrential storm