Aircraft

Rolls-Royce cranks world's largest jet engine up to maximum power

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UltraFan is billed as the world's largest jet engine
Rolls-Royce
UltraFan uses composite fan blades
Rolls-Royce
UltraFan is billed as the world's largest jet engine
Rolls-Royce
Business end of the UltraFan
Rolls-Royce
UltraFan showing the spinny bit that warns that you shouldn't be in front
Rolls-Royce
UltraFan in its static test chamber
Rolls-Royce
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Rolls-Royce has taken a major green step, announcing that not only has its giant UltraFan demo jet engine been run at full power on 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), but tests have proven all its current civilian engines are compatible with 100% SAF.

With increasing pressure on the aerospace industry to produce technology that's both more efficient and environmentally friendly, it's significant when a major player like Rolls-Royce embraces something like SAF across an entire product range, including its show piece for this decade.

Billed as the largest and most powerful jet engine in the world, the UltraFan has a 140-in (356-cm) fan and can produce 64 MW of power. In static tests, it has generated a maximum thrust of over 85,000 lb and the technology can be scaled to as high as 110,000 lb for narrow-body or wide-body aircraft of the 2030s.

But the UltraFan's party piece is its geared turbofan with a variable pitch fan system. This allows the engine's turbine and fan to each run at its optimum speed and the carbon composite fan blades can vary their pitch to optimize each phase of flight. The use of composites means that the engine is lighter than an equivalent using titanium alloy and it is 10% more efficient than the previous Trent XWB.

UltraFan in its static test chamber
Rolls-Royce

According to Rolls-Royce, some of the technologies developed for the UltraFan can be incorporated into the company's other current engines, but one thing they share in common is that they have all been certified as compatible with running solely on SAF. The latest to be certified is the BR710 business jet engine, which was tested at the company’s facility in Canada. Other engines include the Trent 700, Trent 800, Trent 900, Trent 1000, Trent XWB-84, Trent XWB-97, Trent 7000, BR725, Pearl 700, Pearl 15, and Pearl 10X.

A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner with Trent 1000 engines is scheduled to make the world's first transatlantic flight fueled entirely by SAF. Currently, international standards only allow a maximum of 50% SAF to be blended with 50% conventional jet fuel. It's hoped that such test flights and static demonstrations the technical hurdles have been overcome could change this.

"We estimate that to reach Net Zero flying by 2050, a combination of highly-efficient, latest-generation gas turbines such as UltraFan operating on 100% SAF are likely to contribute around 80% of the total solution, which is why today’s announcement is such an important milestone for Rolls-Royce and the wider industry," said Simon Burr, Group Director of Engineering, Technology and Safety, Rolls-Royce plc.

Source: Rolls-Royce

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12 comments
Robt
Some terrific engineering, but….
Not so sure about the ‘world’s most powerful’ etc.
The current General Electric GE9X, flying on Boeing 777s is rated at 105,000 lbs and the latest iteration, the GE90-115B is rated at 115,000 lbs thrust.
The UltraFan is more about the advance in fuel economy, noise signature, and potential use of SAF
MarylandUSA
"It has generated a maximum thrust of over 85,000 lb and the technology can be scaled to as high as 110,000 lb." To put these numbers in perspective: In the 1970s, the U.S. Air Force C-5A was the world's largest plane. Each of its four engines produced 39,000 pounds of thrust.
guzmanchinky
It looks like a fun place to work...
Expanded Viewpoint
A jet engine or a Diesel engine can be run on just about anything that is flammable. I have run Diesel engines on Automatic Transmission Fluid as well as hydraulic oil and even WD-40 too!! They can even be run on alcohol. A guy built a compression ignition engine with a compression ratio of 3 to 1, and ran it on ether! Gas turbine engines can be run on a slurry of coal dust and light oil, if you design and build it to do so. Some forms of fuel have more BTU content to them, so you can extract more power per pound of fuel,
Towerman
Its time to put their name to their mouth and start building ground breaking Electric Motors !
spyinthesky
@Towerman didn’t they claim the World electric record last year with their electric power-train aircraft. Just run a hybrid Electric/SAF motor too a few weeks back I believe.
Rechosuave
Electric motors are not an option for commercial aircraft and ships until someone comes up with a brilliant plan to shed battery requirements.
Eggbones
SAF is virtually indistinguishable from Jet-A, so compatibility doesn't mean much. The issue with SAF is that decarbonising aviation would require far more than can be produced, and the cost will therefore always be higher than Jet-A. 2019 was a good year for airlines, but IATA reported that they averaged 3% ROI, meaning most lost money and a small number did quite well. Add 3% to their fuel bills, and most airlines would be grounded - it's that fine a line.
Jinpa
The turbine rotor and stator blades don't encounter combustion heat--just intake air, so composite materials lighter than metal ones should work. Not so with the turbine-wheel blades, which are in the post-combustion flow area.
Seasherm
Gas turbines in power plants put out up to 300,000 kw. Instead of a fan, they use a direct drive to a turbine. That's many times the output of these engines designed for airplanes. When used in combination with a steam turbine, they approach a 60% cycle efficiency.