The RB3025 would have a 132.5-in.-dia. fan delivering a 12:1 bypass ratio. The overall pressure ratio would reach 62:1. It is “quite an aggressive engine,” Nuttall argues, which should be ready toward the end of the decade. It would feature a rising line compressor, a change in architecture now being introduced in the TrentXWB.

Mark King, president of civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, stresses that even with last year's decision to exit the V2500 International Aero Engines joint venture powering the Airbus A320 (Rolls remains a parts supplier), the U.K.-based engine maker is “not going to be short of things to do. The challenge is going to be how do we deploy resources.”

If Rolls-Royce can secure a place on the new Boeing product—still unclear is whether it would be a new design or merely an update to the 777—the engine maker would dominate its rivals in the large turbofan market with its sole position on the A350-900/-800, exclusivity on the A350-1000, and shared market on the Boeing 787 where the Trent 1000 competes with the GEnx, and on the A380 where the Trent 900 is up against the GE/Pratt & Whitney GP7200.

With its newest large engine, the TrentXWB, now in trials on the A380 flying testbed, the configuration will likely be locked in soon for the largest model, the 97,000-lb.-thrust version for the A350-1000, says Chris Young, program director for the TrentXWB. The first engine is slated to run in 2014.

The final technology trades are still being made. Young says some of the technologies that have been under review in the past few years have materialized and others have not. But, he adds, “enough of them have come through . . . to deliver the engine concept.”

At the same time, the company also is working on the latest update to the 787-powering Trent 1000, the Package C that is the baseline powerplant for the -9 version of the aircraft and also should deliver fuel burn improvements for 787-8s. The update has logged more than 60 hr. on the test stand already and been run up to 80,000-lb. thrust—the thrust setting will be 74,000 lb. Engine certification is planned in mid-2013, followed by first flight on a -8 in the second half of 2013 and later on the -9.

Deliveries, however, will begin with the -9 to Air New Zealand. The first -8 with the Package C is likely around June 2014.

The Package C is meant to offer improved turbine engine temperature. The main changes involve the blading of the intermediate pressure compressor and the low-pressure tip control system using a semi-active approach, Carlisle says.

Almost all the Package A engines have been replaced with the Package B standard, delivering 1% specific fuel consumption improvements.