Airbus A350 Rolls-Royce Trent XWB Turbofan Engines Show Minor “Wear in the IPC”

Around five years ago, the XWB-84 entered service on the Airbus A350 widebody airliner. Since then, Rolls-Royce claims that these engines have traveled “an average of 14 million kilometers with no unplanned maintenance.” So far so good, but most importantly, there were few instances of in-flight disruption.

The first planes with the XWB-84 are currently grounded for servicing, and as the headline implies, Rolls-Royce has identified “indications of wear in the Intermediate Pressure Compressor." However, airlines shouldn’t fear anything worse because “none of these engines have experienced any abnormal in-flight operation.” Furthermore, the British juggernaut has taken upon itself to inspect all other turbofans with a similar service life as a precaution.

A little more than 100 engines of the XWB-84 variety have been in service for four to five years, and Rolls-Royce has inspected the majority of them according to a statement. On average, the British multinational has identified wear on 1 or 2 IPC blades in a minority of the inspected engines. Younger turbofans with fewer hours and miles of service under their belt didn’t exhibit this type of wear.

Estimated to cost around 35 million per unit, the XWB-84 features a three-shaft layout like other turbofans from the Trent family. Depending on the application, the XWB series can produce between 84,200 and 97,000 pounds of thrust.

“The Trent XWB-84 has experienced the smoothest entry into service of any widebody engine we have developed,” said Civil Aerospace division president Chris Cholerton. “Engines now coming in for overhaul have travelled the equivalent of 350 times around the world, with no unplanned maintenance.”

At the present moment, the XWB powers 317 aircraft for 31 operators.