BOSSES at Rolls-Royce in Barnoldswick today said the future of the town's two plants were secured after the giant firm landed a share of a $100billion jet engine programme.

That is the value the company has placed for the engines to power Boeing's new 7E7 Dreamliner passenger jet that is scheduled to go into service in 2008.

While no new jobs are expected to be created in Barnoldswick, a company spokesman said the development of the new Trent 1000 engine would help safeguard the future of the 900 staff in the town.

Rolls-Royce at Barnoldswick is a world-class manufacturer of the fan blades that go into the Trent family of engines that are fitted in more than half the world's big passenger jets.

Boeing has selected Rolls-Royce and its US rival General Electric to make the engines for the Dreamliner -- its first all-new jet since the 777 a decade ago.

The decision was welcomed by the works convenor at Barnoldswick Jon Brough who described it as a massive vote of confidence in the company and its workforce.

"We have a highly skilled group of people here at Barnoldswick and the announcement is a big boost for job security," he said. "In the short term, it will mean more work for our design engineers as they develop the new engine. In the longer term, it can only be good news for our members."

Sir John Rose, Chief Executive of Rolls-Royce, described the news as highly significant. "We expect this programme to provide good financial returns and to build on our successful engine portfolio which has allowed us to develop a strong market position in the civil airlines sector.

"As with our other engine development programmes, the suite of advanced technologies which will be developed for the Trent 1000 will find applications in all of our business sectors."