Rolls-Royce secures new jet engine Fort Worth test facility

Rolls-Royce Trent engine first flight

Rolls-Royce announced today will operate a jet engine testbed at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport. The company has signed a lease to take over the entire 440,000 sq. ft. former Texas Aero Engine Services LLC facility, which includes the testbed.

The testbed will conduct endurance test runs for Rolls-Royce’s three new, large civil aero Trent engines, according to a news release.

“This additional testbed helps us improve the capability and flexibility of our global test network and will provide us with additional capability to run endurance analysis, accruing valuable data on our latest engine programs,” Gareth Hedicker, Rolls-Royce, Head of Experimental – Civil Aerospace, said in the release.

The Trent 1000 TEN entered service in November 2017, powering the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the Trent XWB-97 and Trent 7000 will enter service this year on the Airbus A350-1000 and Airbus A330neo respectively.

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The company estimates that by the early 2020s, half of all modern, wide body passenger aircrafts will be powered by Trent engines.

Until it closed in early 2016, TAESL was a maintenance repair and overhaul facility run as a 50-50 joint venture between American Airlines and Rolls-Royce, with the city of Fort Worth as the property owner. Having signed a lease with the city, Rolls-Royce expects the testbed to begin operating in a few months with around 12 employees.

According to the release, the company is reviewing various options for the rest of the facility’s available space, including sub-letting to another company. Rolls-Royce will engage Cushman & Wakefield in marketing the space.