Mitsubishi joins Rolls Royce Dreamliner bid

Aerospace group Rolls-Royce said today it was teaming up with the Japanese to build an engine for Boeing’s new Dreamliner jet.

Rolls said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was to become a risk and revenue sharing partner on the Trent 1000, which it is developing for the Seattle-based planemaker’s 7E7 aircraft.

Mitsubishi will take a 7% share in the Trent 1000 project by supplying the engine’s combustor and low pressure turbine blades.

It will have teams based in Japan and in Derby, which already plays host to the main UK factory of Japanese car giant Toyota.

R-R said it was in continuing talks with other potential risk and revenue sharing partners on the Trent 1000.

The UK group faces competition from US jet engine maker General Electric for orders of engines for the Dreamliner, which is due to enter service in 2008.

Only two airlines have so far said they are buying the 7E7, a family of three aircraft types able to fly distances of between 3,500 and 8.500 nautical miles and seating up to 289 people.

One of them, Air New Zealand, has chosen the Trent 1000 while the other, Japan’s All Nippon Airways, has yet to announce its choice of engine supplier.

Preliminary design of the Trent 1000, part of the Derby-made Trent family, is due to finish by the end of this year and the first development model of the engine is set to run in 2006.

Mitsubishi and Rolls already are both members of the International Aero Engines consortium, which makes the V2500 engine for Airbus A320 jets.

Managing director of R-R’s airline business, Charles Cuddington, said: “Japanese expertise is at the heart of many of our engine programmes and this tradition is being maintained through the latest member of the Trent family.”