Rolls Royce broke ground for its new US$225 million Trent engine assembly and testing facility at Singapore’s new Seletar Aerospace Park, during the recent Singapore Air Show.

The first Trent technical facility outside of Europe will be “the most modern Rolls-Royce production engine assembly and test facility for large commercial aero engines” anywhere in the world, according to Rolls-Royce.

“The facility will be a breakthrough for the aerospace industry in Asia. Engines for large commercial aircraft will be assembled and tested in Singapore before being sent to Boeing and Airbus for installation on aircraft,” said Rolls Royce.

Scheduled for completion in 2009, the Facility of the Future will produce engines in the Trent series, the Trent 1000 for the Boeing 787 and the Trent XWB for the Airbus A350 XWB. The facility, the development of which was announced in November 2007, also enables Rolls-Royce to be closer to its long-term partner Singapore Airlines, whose fleet will now include engines assembled in Singapore.

Sir John Rose, Rolls-Royce chief executive, said: “Our world-class Facility of the Future at Seletar Aerospace Park will break boundaries in terms of operational and environmental efficiency and be our distinctive showcase in Asia.”

Rolls-Royce currently employs over 1200 people in Singapore on maintenance projects and expects to hire another 330 for the facility.

Rolls-Royce says the investment will also help it meet growing global demand. Its order book currently stands at a record US$90 billion with Asia and the Middle East comprising US$40 billion of that total – an amount equal to the total group order book just four years ago.

Rolls-Royce has a 50 per cent share of the modern wide-body commercial aircraft market, with its Trent engine having been selected to power a broad range of new airline programmes, including the Trent 900 on the Airbus A380, the Trent 1000 on the Boeing 787 and the Trent XWB on the Airbus A350 XWB.