Video: Assembling the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB jet engine

[FlyTexas]

Just amazing! Hats off to the boffins at Rolls-Royce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2R6NTgvEV4

Brian

[Airspeed]

Mind boggling.
Lego builders, watch and weep!

[Paul K]

Very interesting to watch, but a little sad that it's in Germany not Britain. People seem to have real jobs there - here, it's careers at Costa dot com.

[robbie]

Thank the lord I've retired now, I spent the last 18 years with RR Canada, Final view inspection for the Trent industrial engine, it's a lot bigger than the XWB, the salary is ok but you cannot believe how mind numbing the work is, of course it looks good on a promotional video but behind the scenes RR is a complete shambles.
Robbie.

[Airspeed]

Sorry to hear that, Robbie!

[cstorey]

Very interesting to watch, but a little sad that it's in Germany not Britain. People seem to have real jobs there - here, it's careers at Costa dot com.

You obviously haven't been to Derby

[Airspeed]

What happens in Derby, Chris?

[Paul K]

You obviously haven't been to Derby

I've been to Ripley- is that close enough ?

Seriously though, I know what you're saying. The common perception is that Britain, once the workshop of the world, now has an economy which is largely based on services rather than manufacturing. Rolls Royce at Derby is an exception- though from what Robbie says, all is not well that company.

I could drone on about the decline of shipbuilding in Britain, but I'll just end up upsetting myself.

[cstorey]

To answer Mike's question , all the larger Trents are built at Derby, and I think the German plant is merely an assembly unit for some of the smaller Industrial engines which for gas pumping, electricity generation, etc are widely used, and for the Trent XWB which is dedicated to the A350 alone. As far as Robbie's reference is concerned, I don't know what he is referring to , but apart from the fairly well publicised problems with premature fatigue in blades in the Trents used in the 787 ( Trent 1000) which are perhaps just that bit too cutting edge in technology , Derby is doing well. And as far as problems are concerned, RR do not have a monopoly on them as Air France with the GE engines in their A380s have discovered. The plain fact is that all these engines are right at the farthest edge of sophistication, and now and then some unforeseen defects will come to light

[Airspeed]

Thanks for that explanation, Chris.