The Airbus A350 XWB programme has achieved yet another important milestone with the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) award of the Engine Type Certification of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan. EASA presented the certificate to Rolls-Royce at EASA’s headquarters in Cologne, Germany. This certification covers Trent XWB engines which will power the A350-800 and A350-900 variants. A higher thrust version of the Trent XWB is currently under development for the A350-1000. Certification confirms the engine has fulfilled EASA’s airworthiness requirements for flight and is the last major engine milestone prior to the first flight of A350-900 ‘MSN001’ later this year. The engines which will power that aircraft are now being prepared prior to installation of the fully integrated powerplant on the aircraft’s pylon.
The Trent XWB has already powered a series of test flights on Airbus’ A380 Flying Test Bed (FTB) aircraft since February 2012. These flight-test results indicate that the engine will meet Airbus’ extremely high efficiency and performance goals for the A350 XWB programme.
