When the Signature Engineering Building opens in early 2014, students, faculty, staff, and all visitors will see a unique centerpiece hanging inside the atrium of the $100 million structure – a massive Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 jet engine.
Normally used as part of the Boeing 787 fleet of commercial carrier jets, the 14,000-pound engine now hangs 15 feet from the ground. Delivered by tractor trailer in August, engineers and workers from Rolls-Royce and construction contractor Gilbane Inc. spent two days prepping and lifting the engine into place in mid-October. Portions of the atrium will be built around the engine.
Rolls-Royce plans to outfit the building’s lobby with interactive kiosks containing information on engine design and advanced manufacturing to inform and excite students about careers in engineering.
About the jet engine:
- Its hollow titanium fan is more than 9 feet across and sucks in more than a ton of air every second at take-off – that’s a racquetball court’s worth of air per second.
- The blades are engineered to deal with immense forces – equivalent to the weight of a freight train at take-off.
- The blade tip travels at more than 900 mph – faster than the speed of sound.
- Each high pressure turbine blade produces more than 800 horsepower – the same as a NASCAR engine.
- The temperature inside the hottest parts of the engine reaches a level approaching half as hot as the surface of the sun.
- At take-off, the engine is at least 3 decibels quieter than the previous generation aircraft.
Rolls-Royce has long enjoyed a strong partnership in higher education with Virginia Tech that includes research and development programs, endowments and internships. “We hope our Trent 1000 engine, a modern engineering marvel, will serve as a symbol of excellence and inspire generations of talented students to pursue careers in science and engineering,” said Phil Burkholder, Rolls-Royce’s executive vice president for engineering and technology and an alumnus of the College of Engineering.
