Rolls-Royce (LSE: RR., ADR: RYCEY) today announces the progress of its Pearl 10X engine development programme at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva.

The programme is advancing at pace and has successfully accumulated more than 1,500 testing hours, both on the Advance 2 demonstrator and the Pearl 10X engine configuration. The team is now preparing for the start of the flight test campaign on Rolls-Royce’s dedicated Boeing 747 flying testbed in Tucson, Arizona, USA, which will start later this year.

The Pearl 10X is the newest member of the state-of-the-art Pearl engine family and the first Rolls‑Royce engine ever to power a Dassault business jet. The French aircraft manufacturer’s selection of the Pearl 10X for its new top range product is another testament to Rolls-Royce’s position as the engine manufacturer of choice in business aviation.

All the tests completed to date confirm the reliability of the engine and show it will meet the performance requirements to power Dassault’s flagship, the Falcon 10X.

So far, the development programme has included the rigorous testing of the new ultra-low emissions ALM combustor, which is compatible with 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and the new accessory gearbox, which allows for higher additional power extraction. The engine, which surpassed its target thrust levels on the very first test run, will be the most powerful business aviation engine in the whole Rolls-Royce portfolio. The first run of the full powerplant, including its bespoke Spirit nacelle, engine build up (EBU) and mount system, was conducted earlier this year.