Rolls-Royce Selects Prime Contractor for Stennis Space Center Jet Test Facility

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Rolls-Royce North America Incorporated (Chantilly, Virginia), a division of Rolls-Royce plc (London, England), has selected MDS Aerospace Support Corporation (Ottawa, Ontario) as the prime contractor for its jet engine test facility at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John C Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. MDS will be responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, and construction of the new facility. Rolls-Royce will construct several new test beds at NASA's Stennis Space Center, as well as perform infrastructure upgrades and renovate several unused buildings. Construction at the Stennis Center is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2005 and be completed in 2007. Engine testing is expected to commence in the second half of 2007.

Rolls-Royce plans to invest $42 million to relocate its outdoor engine testing from its Hucknall site near Nottingham, UK to John C Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. In 2001, Rolls-Royce announced that it had planned to close the Hucknall facility, 120 miles north of London, once it found a new location. In February 2005, it was announced that the Stennis Space Center, 30 miles west of Gulfport, Mississippi, would be the new location for the testing center.

The Mississippi facility will be used to test the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 which powers the Airbus A380 Superjumbo aircraft, followed by similar, specialized testing on the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, being developed to power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The new facility will be used to test development and prototype engines for performance, noise and other factors and will provide Rolls-Royce with data to be used in the development of quieter and more stable engines.

Hucknall airfield was built in 1916 and became Rolls-Royce's flight test center in December 1934. After nearly 40 years in this role, it was announced in 1971 that test flying would be transferred to Filton, near Bristol but Hucknall remained as a test site for Rolls-Royce engines. Today, Hucknall is a production center but the test facilities side has many static testbeds capable of testing engines up to 140,000lbs thrust. These facilities include the ability to cryogenically freeze engines, simulation of torrential rain, effect of multiple bird strikes and to purposely induce catastrophic failures such as fan blade release, all while the engine is running at high power. In addition to this Hucknall site, there are only two other such facilities in the world that provide this type of testing capabilities. In 2007 U.S Gulf Coast will be home to one of these facilities but Hucknall will remain a vital part of Rolls-Royce's aircraft engine operations. Hucknall will remain the main location for production of combustor system components. A new $50 million manufacturing plant employing 300 people will be fully operational there by the end 2005.

This will be Rolls Royce's second major investment in Mississippi in the past few years. In January of 2004, Rolls-Royce broke ground on an $8 million foundry expansion on its Pascagoula Naval Marine Foundry. The 18,000 square foot machining center expansion was completed in early 2005 encompassing 15,000 square feet of manufacturing space and containing a 10 meter gantry milling machine able to machine propellers up to eight meters in diameter. The foundry manufactures propellers for the U.S. Navy nuclear aircraft carrier and various commercial vessels. It also casts propeller blades for U.S. Navy Destroyers and U.S. Navy Amphibious Transport Dock ships. The foundry includes design and custom build capabilities and capacity for propellers ranging in size from 60 inches to 33 feet.

Rolls-Royce grew from the electrical and mechanical business F.H Royce & Company, established by Henry Royce in 1884. Royce Ltd. produced its first automobile in 1901, the same year he met Charles Rolls. Rolls-Royce Ltd. was formed in 1906 and the first car was the six-cylinder Silver Ghost. In 1914, at the start of the First World War, in response to the nation's needs, Royce designed his first aero engine. Over the next 100 years Rolls-Royce has grown into a multinational, multi-disciplined company with sales over annual sales over $10 billion. Its business segments are divided into civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine and energy.

Rolls-Royce North America has twelve principal facilities across the U.S. and Canada. Regional capabilities include manufacturing of advanced gas turbine engines and components; marine propulsion systems; shiplift systems; oil pumping and power generation packages, as well as worldwide R&D for the energy business and new production assembly and test. Rolls-Royce employs about 35,000 people, of who about 8,000 are in North America.

View Plant Profile - 1066069 1518967
View Project Report - 03002607

Industrial Information Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 22 years. IIR is respected as a leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.