The first striking feature is the sheer scale of the machine - the diameter of the set of fan blades at the front of the engine is 299 cm, the largest ever made by the British company and roomy enough to accommodate the fuselage of a Concorde.
The blades themselves, made of titanium, are hollow and strengthened inside by a microscopically small grid construction.
The size of the fan enables the engine to suck in enough air to fill a squash court every second, and then squeeze it to the size of a fridge-freezer - what's known as a "compression ratio" of 50 to 1, the highest pressure Rolls-Royce has yet attained.
The larger the flow of air into the engine, and the greater the potential compression, the better the efficiency of the whole process.
When the mix of fuel and air is ignited, the resulting gas reaches an extraordinary temperature of 2,200C - a higher level than has been achieved before - which is meant to maximise the output of each drop of fuel.
The searing heat of 2,200C is in fact 700C hotter than the melting point of the components in the combustion chamber - including the turbine blades that are driven by this fast-expanding gas.
Blades are made of a nickel-based alloy and are grown in a single crystal
So each blade is drilled with a network of 300 tiny holes about the size of a human hair. This allows cooling air to flow in a thin film over the turbines' surface and act as a form of insulation.
To withstand this exceptional heat - and the massive pressures involved - the 68 turbine blades are made of a nickel-based alloy and are grown in a single crystal to avoid the risk of any internal fissures becoming sources of weakness.
The result is that each blade, driven by the expanding gases, generates as much power as a Formula One car, spinning an internal shaft that drives the massive fan blades at the engine's front.
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