WORKERS at Rolls-Royce's site in East Lancashire are celebrating their part in the company winning Britain's most coveted engineering award.
The aero-engine firm's Trent model has been announced as the winner of this year's Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award.
The Duke of Edinburgh presented the company with its £50,000 prize for the success at a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace. The Trent 700/800 engines, which the firm's Barnoldswick site manufactures wide chord fan blades and front bearing housings for, have already been chosen by 11 airlines around the world.
The Trent's hollow wide chord fan blades - each a metre long - are produced using a unique manufacturing process. Made from two layers of titanium and an inner membrane of the same material they are produced under a special high temperature operation which gives a stronger and lighter blade than with traditional methods.
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