Rolls-Royce to Begin Testing UltraFan Platform in 2023 | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-03.24.25

SunnFun-DayOne-04.01.25

SunnFun-DayTwo-04.02.25

SunnFun-DayThree-04.03.25

SunnFun-DayFour-04.03.25

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT Miss Monday's Historic (Really) SUN n FUN Innovation Preview: www.airborne-live.net, 1600ET!!!

Sun, Dec 25, 2022

Rolls-Royce to Begin Testing UltraFan Platform in 2023

British Steel—and Carbon-Composite and Titanium …

Rolls-Royce announced on 19 December 2022 that it would begin testing its UltraFan aero engine demonstrator in early 2023. Comprising a suite of bleeding-edge technologies conducive to enhanced fuel-efficiency, lower emissions, greater sustainability, and lower operating costs, the UltraFan, in addition to being the world’s largest aircraft powerplant, is among its greenest.

Notwithstanding the environmental accountability evident in the UltraFan’s engineering, Rolls-Royce asserts the platform’s constituent technologies are scalable to the creation of engines with thrust outputs ranging from 25,000-pounds to 110,000-pounds.

The UltraFan demonstrator has been transported from its build-workshop to Rolls-Royce’s Testbed 80, where it has been mounted for testing. Testbed 80—the interior area of which is larger than a Premiership football pitch—was specifically designed to house UltraFan, and cost £90-million ($109.5-million) to build. The voluminous construct opened in 2020 at Rolls-Royce's Derby, U.K. branch—the selfsame facility at which the famed British marque builds the Trent XWB-97 engines by which Qantas's Airbus A350-1000s will be powered.

Contrary to the longstanding practice of developing engines for specific aircraft, the UltraFan is not destined to power any airliner. Rather, the contraption is fully and only a technology demonstrator by which Rolls-Royce seeks to vet a gamut of architectures for possible application to extant or future undertakings.

The UltraFan demonstrator features an 11.6-foot (3.5-meter) carbon-composite/titanium fan, the 18 blades of which sport titanium leading edges; a superlative power gearbox, the planetary gears of which have been tested to a peak output of 87,000-horsepower; and an Advanced Low Emissions Combustion System (ALECS) capable of running on one-hundred-percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). All told, the UltraFan is 25% more fuel-efficient than Rolls-Royce’s first-generation Trent engine.

Speaking on the milestone occasion of the UltraFan demonstrator’s relocation to Derby, Rolls-Royce president of civil aerospace Chris Cholerton remarked: “Seeing the UltraFan demonstrator come together and getting ready for test in Testbed 80 is a great way to end the year. We have all been waiting for this moment, which is such an important milestone for the program and for the team who have worked on it. The next stage will be to see UltraFan run for the first time on one-hundred-percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel in 2023, proving the technology is ready to support more sustainable flight in the future.”

In the near term, Rolls-Royce intends to laterally-migrate technologies and proficiencies from the UltraFan platform to its Trent family of engines. In so doing, the OEM set out to reduce fuel-burn and CO2 emissions of the powerplant by which iterations of Airbus’s A330, A330neo, A340, A350, and A380 airliners, as well as Boeing’s 777 and 787 aircraft families are powered.

In time, Rolls-Royce predicts advancements born of its UltraFan program will engender improvements of as much as ten-percent in the fuel-efficiencies of both narrow and wide-body jets. Compelled by prevailing fuel-costs, airline CEOs—whose eyes are attuned to green’s many shades—are apt to take notice of Rolls-Royce’s efforts.

FMI: www.rolls-royce.com

Advertisement

More News

SilverLight Aviation Provides Updates

Gyroplanes, New Airplane, AJ Sport Displayed At SUN ‘n FUN SilverLight Aviation, based in Tampa, Florida, announced it will have aircraft on display at the SUN ‘n FUN A>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 03.27.25: MOSAIC To Miss OSH?, Flight Design, Dynon

Also: 2025 SnF Innovation Preview, Nat'l Aeronca Convention, Wright Flyer III, Ford Tri-Motor With a new political reality sweeping Washington, DC, and that doesn’t even incl>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.01.25)

Aero Linx: Fairchild Club Home of Fairchild owners, pilots and enthusiasts. You need not own a Fairchild to be part of our Club and share our enthusiasm for the Airplanes. To Join >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (03.31.25)

Aero Linx: Bellanca Champion Club The Bellanca-Champion Club welcomes all owners, pilots, and enthusiasts. Whether you're a Bellanca owner or not, we invite you to join us. The clu>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (03.31.25)

“The TURBINE powered Velocity V-Twin flew today for the first time!!! Great first flight with just a few minor squawks...” Source: The initial report from Velocity Airc>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC