A ROLLS-ROYCE engine designed and built in Derby has taken to the skies for the first time.

The Trent XWB, which has already secured more than £10 billion worth of firm orders, this weekend powered an Airbus A380 test aircraft in Toulouse, France.

Airbus reported that the engine performed "flawlessly" during the five-hour flight on Saturday.

It was flown up to an altitude of 43,000 feet at speeds up to Mach 0.9 – about 680mph.

The Trent XWB is the culmination of years of work and a multi-million-pound investment programme.

The project was managed from Rolls-Royce's civil aerospace headquarters in Sinfin.

In the test, one of the Airbus test plane's four Trent 900 engines was replaced by a Trent XWB, developed to power the new wide-bodied Airbus A350 XWB.

The A350 XWB, so called because of the aircraft's extra-wide body, is expected to have its first flight powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce engines in a year's time.

Charles Champion, executive vice-president of engineering at Airbus, said: "The A350 XWB's engine performed excellently during its first flight test, just as we expected.

"This is a promising start to the Trent XWB's flight-test programme which will ensure a thorough real-life testing of the engine and its systems."

During the seven-month testing programme, the engine will spend about 175 hours in the air, in a variety of different conditions.

It is fitted with test sensors that will take thousands of measurements, allowing engineers to monitor its performance, including fuel efficiency and noise levels.

It has become the fastest-selling Trent engine ever, with more than 1,100 on order.

Chris Young, Rolls-Royce, Trent XWB programme director, said: "It's a great moment to see the Trent XWB take to the air for the first time.

"The flight is the product of years of work and demonstrates the progress being made on our journey to deliver this world-leading technology."

The Trent XWB first ran on a ground test bed in June 2010.

Since then, it has successfully completed more than 1,500 hours of testing, including endurance running, icing and simulated altitude.

These test results showed it to be the most efficient large civil aerospace engine ever produced.

Rolls-Royce expects that the data recorded during test flights will back up these results, demonstrating the engine's performance in the air.

The first results of the test-flight campaign are expected this summer.