Author Topic: Rolls-Royce withdraws from competition to power new Boeing plane  (Read 2639 times)

Offline KB4TEZ

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Rolls-Royce withdraws from competition to power new Boeing plane
« on: February 28, 2019, 08:24:44 AM »
https://www.ft.com/content/06ed1490-3b2d-11e9-b856-5404d3811663

   Rolls-Royce has pulled out of a competition to power Boeing’s planned new mid-sized plane because it could not meet the timetable, the aero-engine group said on Thursday.

The news came as the FTSE 100 group revealed costs to fix issues on its Trent 1000 engines — which power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner — would rise to about £1.5bn over five years.

Shares in Rolls-Royce slid 3.66 per cent to 946p in early morning trading in London.

Rolls-Royce said on Thursday it was “unable to commit to the proposed timetable” for Boeing’s new plane which the US group is expected to launch later this year.

Warren East, Rolls-Royce chief executive, said the decision was “all about having an engine of sufficient maturity in the timescale”.

“We couldn’t make it work,” he told reporters.

The engineering group is developing the UltraFan, a new generation of engine which it said on Thursday it expected to be ready for service in the second half of the next decade.

Boeing has for several years been considering the launch of a new “middle of the market” plane to bridge the gap between its biggest narrow body passenger jet and the 787 Dreamliner twin aisle.

Rolls-Royce announced its intention to withdraw from the competition as it reported a doubling of core free cash flow to £641m for the full year. Group underlying revenues for the year to end December 2018 were £15bn and underlying group operating profit came in at £616m.