Airliner Engine Choices?

[neenaw]

I'm just sitting here at Heathrow and there's a couple of 787-8's parked up on two stands side by side outside the window which got me wondering.
One of them has Rolls Royce engines and the other had GE.
Why?

I can't imagine that there's much in it from a reliability point of view but of do maintenance and running costs vary much between manufacturers?
What about fuel economy and performance?

What's the reason that some go with RR and some with GE?

[Composite Guru]

Depends of their company has a better rep with GE. Its and American company so dealing with a company in the same country my have its benefits??

Having worked in this industry in this country RR will always be the first choice for most, GE always seemed a bit agricultural imo. The only engine I knew when I was working on airliners was a GE and the turbine disc failed, lucky it didn't bring the plane down.

[Orchid1]

I thought it was to maintain competition to keep prices down?

i.e. if everyone started using RR engines then GE might go bust and RR would suddenly put their prices up as they'd be the only supplier.

[jamieduff1981]

An airline with an existing fleet of Rolls Royce engines and frame agreements with Rolls Royce in place is more likely sign up for your latest model if it's available with Rolls Royce engines too - especially if there is commonality with maintenance spares and Engineer training. Or vice versa.

[itwasntandy]

a bunch of new planes are 1 engine only.

E.g. 777-300ER/777-X are GE only
A350 is RR only.
A330neo is RR only.

This started because GE started giving Boeing "development money" in exchange for exclusivity.
RR then followed suite with Airbus.


Interestingly in the case of BA, initially they went with GE for their 777 engine choices. When they converted a bunch of 747-400 options to 777-200ERs, they had contracts with RR for RB211s for the 747s, and thus converted those to Trent800s for their later 777-200ERs. When they bought their 777-300ERs later, as above only GE option. Hence they've a mixed fleet.

[Trevatanus]

itwasntandy said:

a bunch of new planes are 1 engine only.

Don't they just fly around in a big circle?

[williamp]

Trevatanus said:

itwasntandy said:

a bunch of new planes are 1 engine only.

Don't they just fly around in a big circle?

Thats why they have big rudders. They also carry a spare under the other wing, so it the first one stops or running out of fuel, they start the other one...

[smack]

itwasntandy said:

Interestingly in the case of BA, initially they went with GE for their 777 engine choices. When they converted a bunch of 747-400 options to 777-200ERs, they had contracts with RR for RB211s for the 747s, and thus converted those to Trent800s for their later 777-200ERs. When they bought their 777-300ERs later, as above only GE option. Hence they've a mixed fleet.

BA was a launch customer for the 777 (they have the 6th 777 air frame which is still in service). And GE was the only engine option available at that time. So whilst you are right, if you ordered a 777 at the time, you had to buy GE until it was FAA certified a year after first deliveries in 1996 (so all the initial orders were GE).

There is a major difference in the GE and RR engine design, resulting in performance/efficiency differences. But, the initially purchasing criteria of the engine when there are options is due to cost and existing relationships.