Singapore Airlines' selection of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 to power its Airbus A3XX aircraft has not only given Rolls-Royce the prestige of being the launch engine for the mega-transport, it also means that customers seeking delivery slots during the first six months of A3XX production may have no alternative other than to select Rolls' engines. That's because development and test schedules at Airbus, as now structured, show a six-month lag between the times the first and second engines are certified for the A3XX, engine manufacturers say. The competitor to the Trent 900 is the GP7270, which is being developed jointly by General Electric and Pratt Whitney under the GE-P W Engine Alliance.
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