Medium bird-strike test to be done in coming weeks to the A350-1000´s new XWB-97 engine.

“In terms of clearing the XWB-97 for flight, the icing work is complete and the first phase of type testing has been done.

We have to do the medium bird-strike test, and we will be doing that over the next few weeks,” saidSimon Burr,  Rolls-Royce’s COO for Civil Large Engines.

Source: Rolls Royce

The first flight-test engine is “very close to production standard, in fact much closer than the first -84 was. The only differences are just in terms of the external dressing and various small design changes,” he added, referring to aspects such as the configuration of the systems and wiring harnessing, which is “as close as possible to the final standard.”

Source: Rolls Royce

“When we built the first engines we used a different harness technology to experiment with it, but here we have aligned it so it will feel the same to a mechanic servicing either the -84 or the -97,” saidBurr.

The 2 engines already share 80% of the same line replaceable units, but Rolls is refining the configuration to increase the “feel” of commonality.

“It’s about things like where things will be positioned.

We’ve done a lot of design changes to align it to the first A350-900 in service in terms of the -84 engine,” he added. 

Based on the article “Rolls-Royce Building First XWB-97 For Flight Tests” published in Aviation Week.