Ear‐to‐ground

Over 50 Rolls‐Royce RB 211 engines are scheduled for delivery by the middle of this year; first deliveries start in March. This has only become possible due to a dramatic increase in the tempo of both flight and ground testing over last year, and indeed, over half the total running time with the engine has been built up in the last six months as more TriStars have joined the flight programme and an increasing number of engines have become available for ground tests.