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Rolls-Royce asks the UK government to fund its return to narrowbody engines market
February 26th 2026
Rolls-Royce is lobbying the UK government for £3 billion (US$4.05 billion) in subsidies for its new UltraFan 30 engine project, allowing the OEM to return to the lucrative narrowbody aircraft powerplants market, the Financial Times (FT) reported. Read More » Rolls-Royce currently only produces engines for wide-body aircraft operating long-haul routes. It withdrew from the narrow-body aircraft market more than a decade ago. During the last few years, the OEM has spent more than £500mn on a demonstrator of the UltraFan engine, which aims to be 25% more efficient than the group’s first Trent engines. In 2024, it said it had started work on a “scaled-down” demonstrator, the UltraFan 30, designed to power a next-generation narrow-body aircraft. Tufan Erginbilgiç, Rolls-Royce’s chief executive, has been closely involved and discussed the matter with business secretary Peter Kyle in recent weeks, the FT reports.
