A lot of great things going on at GE. This exclusive deal with Boeing should help us get near a split!!!
Fez
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Friday September 10, 1:14 pm Eastern Time
Rolls-Royce stops work on giant 777X engine
By Bradley Perrett, European Aerospace Correspondent
LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Britain's Rolls-Royce Plc has stopped work on the giant engine it wanted to build for the proposed Boeing (NYSE:BA - news) 777X, the company said.
By ceasing work on the mighty Trent 8115 engine, Rolls seems to have accepted that General Electric Co (NYSE:GE - news), already armed with an exclusivity deal with Boeing, is increasingly likely to become the sole power supplier for the big twin-jet.
``It (the Trent 8115) is on the backburner, but the Trent programme is moving forward,' said a spokesman for the company, one of the world's big-three aero-engine makers.
The Trent 8115 was to have been derived from the existing Trent 800 group of engines that compete with GE and Pratt & Whitney (NYSE:UTX - news) to power current-model 777s.
All three firms had proposed monster engines with the required thrust of 510 kilonewtons (115,000 pounds). Boeing said in July that GE alone had been selected, because not enough 777Xs would be built to justify more than one powerplant type.
But Rolls-Royce kept working on its engine, hoping that a rebellion among airlines would force Boeing to change its mind and offer a choice of powerplants, industry media reported.
Although Rolls could resume work on the Trent 8115, a London investment bank analyst said the firm would now have much more difficulty in persuading loyal airlines to back its engine.
``Stopping work makes it very, very hard for Rolls to go to Cathay Pacific (in Hong Kong) or British Airways (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BAY.L) -- who have got to be the launch customers -- and say to them 'Will you please buy our engines?' the analyst said.
Failure to gain a place on the 777X is considered serious for Rolls and Pratt & Whitney because, quite apart from the revenue directly involved, airlines might now prefer to standardise on GE for current-model 777s as well.
Engines amount to about a quarter of an airliner's value. Airlines operate as few different types as they can, to minimise maintenance costs.
The Rolls spokesman would not comment on the implication of GE's exclusivity for further Rolls sales on 777s, but said: ``We still regard ourselves very much as a high-thrust player.'
``We do intend to develop the Trent 800 family to meet customer needs,' he said, confirming that Trent 8115 work had stopped.
The company was building a smaller engine as a technology demonstrator, positioning itself to power other aircraft that needed more thrust than its current range offered, he said.
No such aircraft is proposed apart from the 777X.
GE's exclusivity contract is reported to expire if Boeing has not gained launch customers for the 777X by December.
Boeing says it expects to sell about 500 of the new model, which would offer unprecedented range and the low maintenance costs of only two engines.
Asian airlines are expected to be major customers. |
