Rolls-Royce’s Pearl 10X engine has reached a new milestone in its development with the accumulation of more than 1,000 testing hours. According to the company, the Pearl 10X development program has so far included testing of the new ultra-low-emissions ALM combustor and accessory gearbox. Rolls-Royce says that one of program’s next big milestones will be the entry of the first full powerplant, to include its bespoke Spirit nacelle, EBU and mount system, into testing later this year.
The newest member of the Rolls-Royce Pearl engine family, the Pearl 10X features the company’s Advance2 engine core and is expected to offer a 5 percent improvement in efficiency compared to the last generation of Rolls-Royce business aviation engines. Once ready, it will power Dassault’s latest business jet, the Falcon 10X, which is slated to enter service at the end of 2025. Rolls-Royce reports that all engine testing conducted to date has shown that the Pearl 10X will meet the performance requirements for the aircraft.
“Our Pearl 10X team is extremely focused on the development of the engine and it makes me proud to see the continuous progress of the programme,” said Dirk Geisinger, Rolls-Royce director for business aviation. “The combination of highly-efficient power and outstanding environmental performance of the Pearl 10X is in a class of its own and will support Dassault’s Falcon 10X in setting new standards in the ultra-long-range corporate jet market.”
So is the nacelle custom made?
That’s a recent meaning of the very old word ‘bespoke’, accuse and complain being older uses.
Sounds like a worthwhile advance in fuel efficiency, but ‘generation’ blah blah is hype. PR types are a version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf – when there really is something outstanding no one will believe them.
You are older than I thought, K. You think the meaning of “custom-made” for “bespoke” is recent? Were you born in the 15th century?
Merriam-Webster says, ‘In the English language of yore, the verb bespeak had various meanings, including “to speak,” “to accuse,” and “to complain.” In the 16th century, bespeak acquired another meaning—”to order or arrange in advance.” It is from that sense that we get the adjective bespoke, referring to clothes and other things that are ordered before they are made.…’ (Source: merriam-webster dot com /dictionary/bespoke .)
Watching the usage or popularity of words is often entertaining. Bespoke has in the past mostly been sparingly used in relation to clothing, especially men’s suits, as a ritzy synonym for the pedestrian descriptive “custom”. And I do seem to see it appearing more often in relation to other custom or customized products.
Another word I’ve watched become popular over the past 20 years or so is “existential”. You once rarely saw the term unless associated with the “existentialism” movement. Now it is an everyday adjective used lavishly by media writers, seemingly to imply something deeper and more important than its book definition of affirming the existence of a thing. A problem is not just a problem, it is an “existential problem”, which seems intended to imply it is a really, really important and immediate problem worthy of your full and close attention to what the writer wishes to say about it. In the military we had mission creep, this is definition creep.
At this stage of jet engine development, 5% is a pretty impressive step.