Rolls-Royce Trent

The Rolls-Royce Trent is a family of high-bypass turbofans produced by Rolls-Royce. It continues the three spool architecture of the RB211 with a maximum thrust ranging from . Launched as the RB-211-524L in June 1988, the prototype first ran in August 1990. Its first variant is the Trent 700 introduced on the Airbus A330 in March 1995, then the Trent 800 for the Boeing 777 (1996), the Trent 500 for the A340 (2002), the Trent 900 for the A380 (2007), the Trent 1000 for the Boeing 787 (2011), the Trent XWB for the A350 (2015), and the Trent 7000 for the A330neo (2018). It has also marine and industrial variants like the RR MT30. Despite the RB211 success, the large civil turbofan market was dominated by General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce share was only 8% when it was privatised in April 1987. In June, Rolls-Royce was studying whether to launch a RB211-700, a development for the Airbus A330 twin-jet, the long-range Boeing 767 and the MD-11, derived from the 747-400's -524D4D, with growth potential to . By June 1988, Rolls-Royce was investing over $540 million to develop the uprated RB-211-524L with a new fan up from for the -524G/H and a fourth LP turbine stage up from three, targeting . At the September 1988 Farnborough Airshow, the -524L development was confirmed, estimated at £300 million, to power the MD-11 and A330 as a full-scale model was unveiled by Frank Whittle. In June 1989, the RB211-524L Trent was confirmed for the A330, rated at . Rated at for the MD-11, the Trent made it first run on 27 August 1990 in Derby. By September 1992, the Trent 600 for the MD-11 was abandoned and prototypes were rebuilt as Trent 700 engines for the A330 with a fan. In keeping with Rolls-Royce's tradition of naming its jet engines after rivers, this engine is named after the River Trent in the Midlands of England. The UK government granted Rolls-Royce £450 million repayable launch investment, repaid with interest, to develop the RB.211 engine and the Trent family up to the Trent 900.