Recently, the British company Rolls-Royce, one of the world's three major aviation engine giants, officially announced that its Trenta 7000 aircraft engine has officially obtained the airworthiness certification issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. At the same time, Rolls-Royce is already negotiating with China regarding matters related to the joint venture between the two parties in the future.
Although Rolls-Royce has not publicly stated that after the Trent 7000 received the airworthiness certification issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which model will it fly or make its first flight? However, judging from the models that the Trenta 7000 has been equipped with and is planned to be equipped with, the Trenta 7000 has obtained the airworthiness certification issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China at this time. The behind it refers to either the A330neo civil aviation airliner equipped with this advanced aviation engine, which will be officially allowed to operate and fly in Chinese airspace; or it refers to the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft under development in China, which has officially decided to select the Trenta 7000 as the initial test flight power model.
Judging from previous official announcements, the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft is scheduled to achieve its first flight in 2025 and be delivered and operated around 2029. From a time point perspective, the choice of formally determining the power system required for the first flight at the end of 2022 is also in line with the civil aviation passenger aircraft development process. After all, after the power system is officially determined, subsequent adaptation work will be carried out based on the software and hardware interfaces of the power system, flight control, fuselage and other related aspects, laying the foundation for the successful first flight of the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft around 2025, equipped with Tritar 7000 advanced aviation engine.
However, judging from the timing of the news announced by Rolls-Royce, it is not very likely that the Trenta 7000 will become the initial installed power of the C929 at this time. It is likely that the relevant airworthiness certification work was carried out in advance just to approve the A330neo long-range wide-body passenger aircraft already equipped with this power to officially enter Chinese airspace for flight and operation starting in 2023. After all, when a foreign civil aviation aircraft flies or operates in Chinese airspace, in addition to the aircraft itself, the core avionics radar on the fuselage, especially the aviation engine system, must additionally undergo airworthiness certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
In fact, from the very beginning, in order to obtain civil aviation certification and delivery operations earlier, C929, like the C919 domestically produced passenger aircraft that has been officially delivered, has also chosen a large number of mature parts and components from the civil aviation field. International suppliers, especially in terms of the core power system, in addition to the independently developed AEF3500 as an alternative and later replacement power, Rolls-Royce's Treada 7000, General Motors' GENX-1C, and Russia's PD35 aircraft engine power were also considered in the initial stage.
And judging from the optional power systems of the C929, Rolls-Royce's Trenta 7000, although its overall performance is slightly behind its own new generation of Trenta XWB in terms of thrust and fuel consumption, is the most suitable choice among the four available installed powertrains. Because compared with the other three models of installed power, the Triton 7000 has been equipped with the A330neo long-range wide-body passenger aircraft in batches and has begun batch delivery and operation. There are not many problems in terms of delivery speed, airworthiness certification and other aspects.
On the other hand, among the remaining three engines, the AEF3500 independently developed by China is still under development and will achieve its first flight around 2030 at the earliest; the PD35 developed by Russia has not yet achieved the prototype off the assembly line, and the entire project is progressing It is sometimes restored and sometimes interrupted, and it is still unknown when it will be able to take off the production line for its first flight. Although the GENX-1C of the United States General Dynamics has been installed and operated in batches, the aircraft engine is still slightly behind the Trent 7000 in terms of maximum thrust and fuel consumption performance. Moreover, due to its complicated background, insisting on choosing the GENX-1C is likely to be unilaterally sanctioned by the United States during later batch delivery and stop supply, resulting in the suspension of delivery of the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft and the grounding of all operating models.
Of course, from a long-term perspective, it is still necessary to choose domestic AEF3500 for the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft. Because in addition to selecting as many domestic supporting components as possible to reduce costs and enhance the market competition of C929, more importantly, it also avoids the problem of C929 being attacked from both sides by competitors restricting the supply of core components such as aviation engines in future market competition.
It is also worth mentioning that the C929 long-range wide-body passenger aircraft will definitely join the military in the future, and based on the civil aviation passenger aircraft platform, it will derive a number of special models such as large airborne early warning aircraft, large aerial tankers, large air command aircraft, and special aircraft for national leaders’ visits. These models can only be realized if all of them are 100% made in China.
Fortunately, the domestically produced supporting power AEF3500 advanced aviation engine has successfully completed the ignition operation of the core engine at the end of 2020, and the supporting large-size wide-chord composite blades have also been successfully rolled off the production line. It is estimated that the C929 will be able to roll off the production line and start testing the entire aircraft before and after its first flight. So in general, the reason behind the official approval of the airworthiness certification issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China of the Trenta 7000, one of the primary power sources for the C929, is just to meet the requirements for the A330neo passenger aircraft equipped with this power to officially enter China's flight, but it also laid a foundation for this type of power to further become the first flight power of the C929's initial installation.
