Rolls-Royce could ower Boeing ‘797’ if Max crisis delays launch

Rolls-Royce Holdings could re-enter the competition to power a medium-sized jetliner under development at Boeing if the US planemaker pushes the project back to help cope with the 737 Max crisis. Rolls, which exited the New Midsize Aircraft program earlier this year saying a new engine won’t be ready for the plane to enter service in 2025, may return to the contest if the timetable slips, Chief Executive Officer Warren East said Thursday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Bristol, England. “We said to Boeing, we can’t produce something that we are confident will be sufficiently mature,” East said. “If Boeing change their timescales then obviously we can reassess. We think technically we have a good solution.” Rolls had initially regarded the NMA, also dubbed the 797, as a potential launch platform for the new Ultrafan engine that will form the basis of its turbine offerings for the foreseeable future. That was before East said in February that it would be wiser to withdraw than “screw up the launch” of the plane and create service issues for customers. Boeing put back a decision to select an engine for the NMA even before the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airways Max on March 10. The subsequent worldwide grounding of the 737 has led some analysts to suggest that the company may need to suspend work on the new plane to focus its full attention to getting the narrow-body workhorse flying again.<br/>