Pearl performance powers production towards 300-per-year total

Rolls-Royce sees output at Dahlewitz plant filling capacity vacated by end of BR710 and BR725 engines.
Sustained demand for the business jets powered by its Pearl family of engines is pushing output at Rolls-Royce’s Dahlewitz plant to levels not seen since the heyday of its preceding BR series.

Philipp Zeller, Rolls-Royce senior vice-president, says production is ramping up across the Pearl family, which includes variants for the Bombardier Global 5500 and 6500, Gulfstream G700 and G800, and in-development Dassault Falcon 10X.

Dahlewitz is the propulsion specialist’s centre of excellence for business jets and previously built the BR725 and BR710 before those engines were phased out in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

But since then, “the Pearls have pretty much grown to fill that capacity”, says Zeller. “We are back to production numbers we had in the BR times.

Last year Rolls-Royce delivered around 220 business jet engines from Dahlewitz and it expects to ship a similar number this year.

While serial production has so far comprised just the Pearl 15 and Pearl 700 – powering the Bombardier and Gulfstream models, respectively – Rolls-Royce recently announced it had begun assembly of the first serial Pearl 10X engines for the Falcon 10X.

Zeller says there are currently three Pearl 10Xs on its build line, with work on a fourth to begin shortly. Delivery of the first unit to Dassault will take place later this year.

Service entry for the Falcon 10X is expected in 2029, but with production of the Pearl 10X beginning to accelerate, Zeller sees this driving total output even higher.

“With the 10X we could even be going above the [current] numbers, building north of 300 engines per year for the Pearl family.”

Rolls-Royce is investing €30 million ($33.6 million) to expand the Dalhlewitz plant, including adding a new assembly line for the Trent XWB-84 engine that powers the Airbus A350-900, capacity that comes on stream next year.

Growing family

Unsurprisingly, Zeller would not be drawn on whether the Pearl family might be expanded at some point.

“We are working with all the aircraft OEMs to see what ideas they have on the aircraft development side and how we can support them,” he says.

Additionally, Rolls-Royce continues to evaluate potential performance improvements for the Pearl engines and “how big a step-change is required” and whether the market’s expectations could be met “with small upgrades to improve emissions or weight”, he says. “Big upgrades will take a longer time to implement.”

Rolls-Royce is already investigating the potential for hybridisation of its large commercial engines and that technology could flow through to the business jet market.

Notably, the manufacturer will use a Pearl powerplant as the basis for a hybridisation ground-test campaign through an EU Clean Aviation-funded project.

Feedback from the in-service Pearl fleet has been “very good”, adds Zeller, citing power and reliability as key attributes.

“Reliability has been there from the get-go. All the efforts we put in [to drive maturity] have come to fruition.”

That operational resilience has been aided by the company’s CorporateCare Enhanced (CCE) power-by-the-hour support which is standard on Pearl 15 and Pearl 700 engines.

Around 84% of customers for those powerplants have selected the plan, says Lindsey Gillen, vice-president of sales and marketing, business aviation.

She confirms CCE will also be offered on the Pearl 10X, including coverage for life-limited parts and the nacelles.

“It is a key benefit for customers when they take delivery of the aircraft,” she says.

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