Testbed 80 can test a wide range of today’s engines, like the Trent XWB Trent 1000, UltraFan demonstrator as well as next-gen high efficient engines and hybrid engines of all electric flights
19 January 2021: Rolls-Royce recently completed a milestone for the successful first Trent XWB engine run on the state-of-art Testbed-80 at the test facility in Derby, UK. The testbed has an internal area of 7,500 sq meters, larger than a Premiership football pitch with an investment of Euro 90 million.
Chris Cholerton, President Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace, said, “Today is an important landmark in our journey towards a more sustainable future for aerospace and aviation. Testbed 80 will not only test engines such as the Trent XWB – the world’s most efficient aero-engine in service – but also the engines and propulsion systems of the future, which will see us take another step towards decarbonisation. It’s great that the first engine test has been a success and we are looking forward to the official opening of the facility in the coming months.”
Testbed 80 has been designed to test a range of today’s engines, including the Trent XWB and the Trent 1000, but will have the capability to test the UltraFan demonstrator as well as the next generation of even more efficient engines, as well as the hybrid or all-electric flight systems of the future. The versatility of the testbed means it is able to accommodate engines of all sizes up to 155klbf thrust. That is enough power to launch a Boeing 747 with one (huge) engine.
The data systems inside Testbed 80 are more capable and complex than any of the existing testbeds, delivering data in the fastest time directly to secure storage, linked for the first time to our analytical models and engineers. The data can be collected from more than 10,000 different parameters on an engine, using an intricate web of sensors that detect even the tiniest vibrations at a rate of up to 200,000 samples per second. The data helps us understand our engines better, monitoring how every single component behaves in a range of conditions, and consequently providing crucial insights to inform future engine improvements for availability and efficiency.
As a part of decarbonisation strategy and promoting the scaling up of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Testbed-80 is equipped with 140,000 litre fuel tank for different fuel types, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
The testbed is also home to a powerful x-ray machine that is able to capture 30 images per second and beam them directly to a secure cloud, where engineers around the world can analyse them along with the 10,000 other data parameters we can measure. This unique test allows us to inspect engines to minute levels of detail and obtain precise levels of data.
