CLARION LEDGER
By Jack Mazurak
Friday, October 12, 2007
ROLLS-ROYCE UNVEILS FACILITY
Company brass already were talking expansion Thursday as Rolls-Royce opened its $49 million jet engine testing facility at Stennis Space Center.
"We're looking at possibly doing another test stand here, maybe in 2010, but you've got to start the talks now to be ready by then. You look at the future product portfolio, and it's not unreasonable to consider given the future business possibilities," Rolls-Royce technical director Neill Forrest said.
The United Kingdom-based company showed off its newly completed testing stand Thursday. The stand is essentially a massive arm at the top of a 50-foot mast that juts from the center of a 150-foot concrete circle. Jet engines are bolted to the arm. ...
The data from these research engines will be used to tweak fuel efficiency and noise levels in production units at Rolls-Royce plants around the world.
The company initially will test the Trent 900 engine, used in the world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380. Rolls-Royce will strap up the Trent 1000 beginning next month. That engine will debut on the upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The facility will see regular use, Forrest said, with engines "on the stand almost all the time."
Construction on the stand and several related buildings began in June 2006. The facility employs 40 full time and created about 150 construction jobs.
At Thursday's opening, Rolls-Royce North America President and Chief Executive Officer James Guyette thanked the neighbor companies, Mississippi's U.S. senators, 4th District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor and Gov. Haley Barbour, saying their energy was essential to the project.
Rolls-Royce joins other private companies at Stennis, including Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin. NASA has tested space-program rocket engines at Stennis for decades and is building a $170 million stand. It will test the J2X engines that will power the next-generation lunar vehicle to replace the space shuttle. ...
"The big thing was that we needed a place to test outdoors. We also needed access to highly qualified calibrations experts and we found everything we needed right here," Forrest said, as he stood on the concrete test pad.
The company's outdoor test facility in the UK. is being closed, but an indoor version is under construction there. Though there will be little monetary impact on Hancock County from the new installation, it did bring more jobs and several contracts for other organizations. The Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission has a contract to bring in jet fuel.
Stennis associate director Patrick Scheuermann said the new tenant is high-profile and brings yet another marquee name.
"They looked at 50 sites worldwide," Scheuermann said. "That's why we're proud we had the infrastructure and expertise and that it fits into the Stennis Center." ...
Rolls-Royce contracted with Lockheed Martin for 10 employees to run the new facility. They'll do everything from grass cutting to engine test calibrations. Rolls-Royce put the contractors through a seven-week training course in the United Kingdom.
"Our people will receive the engine, do the engine prep work, set up, build the engine surround, mount it, connect it and do the instrumentation monitoring. They'll be overseen by Rolls-Royce employees. The data they gather will be sent back to the UK," Lockheed Martin senior program manager Jim Marcussen said.
Lockheed has several operations at Stennis including installation of thermal blankets and propulsion systems on satellites.
The Rolls-Royce facility is the state's second. Rolls-Royce Naval Marine Inc., another branch of the company, operates a ship propeller foundry in Pascagoula that it purchased in 1999. Mississippi is one of seven states the company is considering for a multi-use production and testing facility.
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