Rolls and US rival link up to develop Airbus engine

ROLLS-ROYCE forged a ground-breaking deal yesterday to bring a rival US aero-engine manufacturer into its Trent engine programme.

Hamilton Standard, part of the giant United Technologies corporation which owns the Pratt & Whitney aero-engine company, is one of six risk and revenue-sharing partners taking a 24 per cent stake in the Trent 500, the Rolls jet engine which will power the new version of the Airbus A340 aircraft. News of the deal came as Rolls announced a package of orders worth $1.5bn (pounds 900m) at the Farnborough Air Show.

Rolls is already in partnership with Pratt & Whitney on the international V2500 engine programme. But the Trent deal is the first time that one of its US rivals has taken a direct stake in an engine developed by Rolls. Other partners are FiatAvio of Italy, Lucas Aerospace, the Spanish aero- engine company ITP and Japanese companies Marubeni and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The stretched Airbus A340-500/600 has so far attracted orders worth $15bn for 120 aircraft from nine airlines. The value to Rolls of engine orders stands at $4.8bn.

The Dubai-based airline, Emirates, and the Californian aircraft leasing company ILFC yesterday confirmed orders for up to 26 stretched A340s worth a total of $3.4bn to Airbus and $1bn to Rolls. Rolls' US subsidiary, Allison, has clinched a $500m contract to power a fleet of up to 150 Embraer regional airliners ordered by American Eagle.

The continuing sales success for Airbus follows its coup in beating Boeing to a pounds 5.5bn regional aircraft order from British Airways.

Meanwhile Manfred Bischoff, the chief executive of Daimler-Benz Aerospace, the German partner in Airbus, said he would welcome US investment in the four-nation consortium which is due to convert to a public company next year.

"I think that would help competition and there is no reason, there is no law, that in aerospace the line has to be drawn in the Atlantic," he said.

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