{"id":15527,"date":"2020-02-13T14:20:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/?p=15527"},"modified":"2020-02-13T14:20:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:20:48","slug":"rolls-royce-begins-building-giant-composite-fan-blades-for-next-gen-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/2020\/02\/rolls-royce-begins-building-giant-composite-fan-blades-for-next-gen-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolls Royce Starts Building its Giant Composite Fan Blades for Next-Gen Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rolls-Royce has begun manufacturing of the world\u2019s largest composite fan blades, for its UltraFan demonstrator engine. The composite blades have a 140-inch diameter, which is almost the size of a current narrowbody fuselage, and are being made at the company\u2019s technology hub in Bristol, U.K. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesdirectory.com\/listing\/rolls-royce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Rolls Royce (opens in a new tab)\">Rolls Royce<\/a> says that UltraFan will set new standards in efficiency and sustainability, offering a 25 per cent fuel reduction compared to the first generation of Trent engine, and deliver the same percentage reduction in emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Efficiency improvement comes from the composite fan blades and fan case, which reduce weight on a twin-engine aircraft by 700kg, the equivalent of seven people travelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The engine which is due to start ground tests in 2021 features a new core architecture which maximises fuel efficiency and lowers emissions. Advanced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/tag\/cmc\">ceramic matrix composites<\/a> provide new heat resistant components that operate more effectively in high turbine temperatures and a new geared design will maximise high-thrust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We have got all the building blocks in place, the design, the technologies, a brand-new testbed, and now we are actually seeing the engine come together.<\/p><cite>Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce, President \u2013 Civil Aerospace<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The fan blades are created through the build-up of hundreds of layers of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/tag\/carbon-fibre\">carbon-fibre<\/a> materials, pre-filled with enhanced, resin material. Heat and pressure are then applied, and each blade is finished with a thin titanium leading edge, which offers extreme protection against erosion, foreign objects and bird strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Composite blades have already been extensively tested on an Advanced Low-Pressure System development engine, including in-flight testing on the Rolls-Royce Flying Test Bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rolls-Royce has begun manufacturing of the world\u2019s largest composite fan blades, for its UltraFan demonstrator engine. The composite blades have a 140-inch diameter, which is almost the size of a current narrowbody fuselage, and are being made at the company\u2019s technology hub in Bristol, U.K. Rolls Royce says that UltraFan will set new standards in efficiency and sustainability, offering a 25 per cent fuel reduction compared to the first generation of Trent engine, and deliver the same percentage reduction in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[32,781,310],"class_list":["post-15527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-aviation","tag-carbon-fibre","tag-cmc","tag-rolls-royce"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rolls Royce Begins Building Giant Composite Fan Blades for Next-Gen Engine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rolls-Royce has begun manufacturing of the world\u2019s largest composite 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