The Power Gearbox

The world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox

Key technology of the UltraFan® engine design

We develop manufacturing capability and capacity for the power gearbox for Rolls-Royce’s new UltraFan® engine design. The Power Gearbox is a vital component of the next-generation UltraFan® engine design. The UltraFan® will be available in the next decade and offers 25 per cent improvement in fuel burn compared with the first generation of Rolls-Royce Trent engines.

More power than an entire grid of Formula 1 cars

Rolls-Royce’s Power Gearbox is designed to run all the way up to 100,000 horsepower. That makes it the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox.
It is designed to deliver improved efficiency over a wide range of thrusts.
The Power Gearbox has a planetary design, with each planet capable of holding the force of a Trent XWB engine at full throttle. The new system transmits the power equivalent to that produced by more than 500 family cars. When running at maximum power, each pair of teeth on the gearbox will transmit more power than an entire grid of Formula 1 cars. That means the whole gearbox, with its five planetary gears, packs as much punch as 100 Formula 1 cars together.

The road to top performance

Presentation

UltraFan®

2014: Announcement of the UltraFan® design

Testbed

2014: Rolls-Royce announced that it will expand its aerospace research and technology capabilities in Dahlewitz, building a new testbed for power gearboxes which will support the development of next-generation aero-engine designs.

Joint

Venture

2015: Rolls-Royce and Liebherr-Aerospace have agreed to establish a 50:50 joint venture to develop manufacturing capability and capacity for the power gearbox for Rolls-Royce’s new UltraFan® engine.

ATT

starts

2015: Rolls-Royce and Liebherr-Aerospace have named their 50:50 joint venture: The new company is to be known as Aerospace Transmission Technologies GmbH. It officially started operations at the site of Liebherr-Aerospace in Friedrichshafen in September.

First

test

2016: Rolls-Royce has run the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox for the first time, marking a significant step in the development of its new UltraFan® engine design.

Load

tests

2017: Rolls-Royce has started power runs of the world’s most powerful aerospace gearbox for the first time.

70,000

2017: The Power Gearbox had successfully reached 70,000 horsepower while on test at Rolls-Royce’s dedicated facility in Dahlewitz, Germany. As well as high power testing, the Power Gearbox is also undergoing attitude-rig testing, which simulates the effect of the gearbox being on the wing of an aircraft in flight, through phases such as take-off, climb, banking and descent.

Subscale

rig

2018: Presentation of a subscale rig to test scaled-down gearboxes at the Technical University of Munich.

Advance-Core

tests

2018: Test run of the Rolls-Royce Advance-Core engine (which will subsequently be connected to the gearbox)

"Wedding"

2021: Start of Assembly of the first UltraFan® Demonstrator with the gearbox

Ground

tests

2022: first run of UltraFan®-Demonstrator in Derby, Great Britain

Flight

test

Next up: Flight testing in the flying testbed using a specially equipped aircraft

Start

regular-service

Next up: UltraFan® Design engines to be operational in the next decade