Page 61 - World Airnews Magazine March 2021

NEWS DIGITAL

ROLLS-ROYCE SIGNS TOTALCARE

AGREEMENT

by Rebecca Campbell

aircraft availability as a result of our in-depth engine knowledge
that only we can provide, drawing on advanced engine health
UK-based global major industrial technology group monitoring and the inclusion of product durability and reliability
Rolls-Royce and Uganda Airlines have signed a TotalCare service improvements.”
agreement for the Trent 7000 engines that power the Ugandan The Trent 7000 has a thrust of 302.5 kN to 320.3 kN and provides
flag carrier’s new Airbus A330neo widebody airliners. (The suffix the A330neo, for which it is the exclusive engine, with a fuel
burn per seat that is 25% less than that of previous generation
-neo stands for new engine option.) competitor airliners. This reduces environmental impact, and the
Uganda Airlines has received the two A330neos it ordered, one Trent 7000 is also significantly quieter than previous generation
each in December and January. engines.
“We are proud to include our new Rolls-Royce powered Airbus The Trent engine family recently celebrated its twenty-fifth
A330neos into our fleet and this agreement will ensure that our anniversary and over this period the members of the family have
Trent 7000 engines will be maintained to world-leading levels of totalled more than 150-million engine flying hours. The Trent 7000
service,” affirmed Uganda Airlines CEO Cornwell Muleya. is the seventh member of the family and entered into service in
“Our TotalCare agreement will ensure Uganda Airlines, the latest November 2018. It was developed using the experience derived
member of the family of Trent operators, receives our flagship from the Trent 700, which powered the original Airbus A330 and
standard of service, maximising aircraft availability and the which has accumulated more than 50-million engine flying hours.
ability to plan forward financially,” stated Rolls-Royce senior VP The current Uganda Airlines is a revival of the original Uganda
customers John Kelly. Airlines and started operating in 2019.
“TotalCare offers more than just an engine maintenance plan; The original Uganda Airlines operated from 1977 to 2001. In
it is a service concept based upon predictability and reliability,” addition to its two A330neos, the modern iteration of the airline
explained Rolls-Royce in its statement. also operates four Bombardier CRJ900ER regional jets. (Following
“This agreement will give Uganda Airlines a secured cost of Bombardier’s disposal of its commercial jet business last year,
operating and maintaining their Trent 7000 engines, through a responsibility for supporting all its regional jets, including the
dollar-per-flying-hour payment mechanism, as well as enhanced CRJ900, now lies with Mitsubishi. Q

NEWS DIGITAL

A SECRET NEW AIRCRAFT

While Lockheed ultimately canceled to secretly design, build, and test a new
DarkStar, the company went on to build prototype fighter jet in the span of just one
Lockheed Martin’s famous “Skunk other drones, including the RQ-170. year.
Works” division will soon begin testing a Digital engineering, which comes from Lockheed’s Speed Racer will begin
secret new aircraft, according to Aviation the civilian aerospace sector, has recently ground testing “imminently,” according to
Week. ported over to the military sector. Skunk Works officials via Aviation Week.
Lockheed designed the uncrewed vehicle, The process involves using computer This means Lockheed built a real aircraft
nicknamed “Speed Racer,” using an all-new software to construct “digital twins” of to complement the digital twin. Ground
digital engineering process known as aircraft from the design to flight stages, testing typically involves watching and
StarDrive. The aircraft’s mission - if it even then flying a real, physical aircraft. testing for reliability, checking for unusual
has one, other than validating the StarDrive Engineers can use the software twin vibrations, and carrying notional payloads
process - is still a total mystery. to predict how an aircraft will fly, make while the aircraft is static or moving under
its own power.
Lockheed originally announced the adjustments, and bring the aircraft design
aircraft in September 2020. While Skunk to an advanced level before the “real” twin The next step is actual flight testing.
Works officials didn’t reveal any details even flies. At this juncture, we don’t know anything
about Speed Racer’s configuration, they This process allows for quicker about Speed Racer. The name itself is
did tout StarDrive, a process that allows for development times and shaves a mysterious acronym, “but it does not
the rapid development of modern aircraft, considerable costs. necessarily imply fast in Mach [number],”
which has grown increasingly complicated The Pentagon designed and developed Joe Pokora, Lockheed’s Speed Racer project
over time. StarDrive should allow for faster the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for example, manager, told Aviation Week.
and cheaper development of military over the course of two decades - a painfully So Speed Racer - an obvious nod to
aircraft. long process that saw the strategic the Japanese anime series - may not be a
Skunk Works has built several drones, environment change dramatically. high-speed aircraft system at all. We’ll find
including the DarkStar spy drone pictured By comparison, the Air Force revealed out soon. Q
above. in 2020 that it used digital engineering Article courtesy: https://www.
popularmechanics.com/

World Airnews | March Extra 2021
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