On a recent trip to Tucson AZ. I spotted an interesting airplane and my favorite airliner, a unique 747-200 while leaving the rental car lot.

What is the significance?

This is an engine test bed for Rolls Royce, more specifically it’s currently configured for the Trent 1000 TEN. See more details here.

I took a few pictures from a different angle as well, you can see the onboard engine, number 2 slot, is significantly larger that the other 3 engines. It has the capability to make 70,000 lbs of thrust. It will power the new version of the Boeing 787-10. It has been flying for a while, actually Boeing made an 18 hour long test flight with a new 787-10 and drew a huge outline of the 787 across the US.

What else are you gonna do with 18 hours and nowhere to go, start drawing I guess…

How much larger is the Trent 1000?

Look at the difference in gap to the ground, the Inboard engines are normally lower but that one is about 36″ off the ground. They also had to Engineer a new mount specifically for this 747 test aircraft that places the engine higher on the wing to give more clearance. (There is a man sitting in the engine cowling if you look close enough)