Rolls-Royce wins £118m US Army deal

Rolls-Royce has announced a £118 million order from the US Army.

The contract is to service M250 engines, which power the US Army's fleet of Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters.

The contract, to support 500 M250 engines on more than 300 aircraft, begins in July 2012 for a year, and the US Army has options to extend the contract for four additional years.

The contract was announced as the Farnborough Air Show opened today in Hampshire.

Rolls-Royce also unveiled the first jet engine to be made entirely from Lego.

The engine is a half-size replica of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 which powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The shows the complex inner workings of a jet engine and took four people eight weeks to complete. Including 152,455 Lego bricks, the engine weighs 677lb (307kg) and is more than 6ft (1.8m) long.

More than 160 separate engine components were built and joined together in order to replicate a real jet engine. Everything from the large fan blades which suck air into the engine down to the combustion chambers where fuel is burned, had to be analysed and replicated using the Lego blocks.

The engine is part of a display in the innovation zone at Farnborough - an area designed to engage young people in science, technology, engineering and maths.

PA