World’s Largest Testbed – Rolls Royce First Engine Run

Venkat Vellanki
March 2, 2021

Rolls Royce, automobile company, propitiously accomplished the first engine run at their state-of-the-art, Testbed 80. It will hold the record of becoming the largest indoor aerospace testbed in the world as of now. It will be officially launched in upcoming months.

Image Credits: Rolls Royce Limited

Testbed 80 site

The construction of this Testbed is still underway.

The new engine Testbed site has an internal area of 7,500 m2. Comparetively, larger than the size of a Premiership football pitch. The respective testbed carried out its first run on a Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine at its test facility located in Derby, UK.

Image Credits: Rolls-Royce Limited

Testbed 80 site at Rolls-Royce

In a press conference, Chris Cholerton, President of Rolls Royce Civil Aerospace, gave a public statement:

“Today is an important landmark in our journey towards a more sustainable future for aerospace and aviation.”

“Testbed 80 will not only test engines such as the Trent XWB, the world’s most efficient aero-engine in service, but also the engines and propulsion systems of the future, which will see us take another step towards decarbonisation. It’s great that the first engine test has been a success and we are looking forward to the official opening of the facility in the coming months.”

Testbed 80 is designed to test a variety of modern engines, including the Trent XWB and Trent 1000, but it will also be able to test the UltraFan demonstrator as well as the potential hybrid or all-electric flight systems. The testbed is capable of accommodating engines of all sizes with a thrust up to 155 klbf; enough capacity power to launch a Boeing 747 with one (huge) engine.