One of the principal goals has been an improvement of Package C ETOPS to 180 minutes, which has previously been 140 minutes, providing operators with greater support for their schedules.
This goal has now been achieved with the FAA formal notification of the ETOPS increase to Boeing, which is now available to all Package C operators.
Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce, President – Civil Aerospace, said: “We are relentlessly working to address issues on the Trent 1000 and apologise to customers for the disruption this has caused. The increase in Package C ETOPS is a step towards our ultimate objective – to eliminate customer disruption and return the fleet to full ETOPS across all Trent 1000 variants.”
The ultimate resolution of issues with the Package C IP Compressor blade is a new standard of blade which was approved for service late last year and good progress is being made on installation of this blade fleet. Installation of these blades eliminates the maintenance burden of repeated inspections and also permits full and continued 330 minute ETOPS.
Package C forms the largest part of the Trent 1000 fleet, powering a total of 170 aircraft.
The introduction of the new blade followed a fast-paced programme which began in June 2018, when the first revised compressor blades were installed on a test engine at a dedicated facility in Derby, UK, making use of the latest in computing capability and “fast make” competencies.