The turbo fan engine, titled Rolls-Royce RB211, was handed over by Federation Training and Field Air.

Chief engineer for Field Air Maintenance Cameron Wright said the behemoth, more than 40 years old and weighing several tonnes, is an important part of Rolls-Royce’s history.

“It’s one of the engines, probably due to the huge cost of development, that caused Rolls-Royce to go into insolvency,” Mr Wright said.

“It was the turning point in Rolls-Royce’s history.

“It’s an important in aviation history.”

Mr Wright said the engine, taken from the Field Air hangar, was too important to scrap since being designated surplus to training requirements.

“It provides a great un-cowled example of one of these large high-bypass turbofan engines,” he said.

“It’s not often that you can look at something that big and for a smaller museum, it is uncommon to have an engine that size.

“It probably weighs five or six tonnes and it has about 42,000 pounds of thrust.”

Ballarat Aviation Museum president Bob Brown said the engine is like nothing else on display.

“It’s something very different to have,” Mr Brown said.

“We’ve got a couple of other Rolls Royce engines, but (they’re) not as big as that.

“We now have one of the last of the big radial engines.”

However, Mr Brown said the engine has proven challenging for space requirements, and is currently languishing in Ballarat’s hangar for onlookers to observe.

“At the moment we’ve had to put it out in the hangar – it’s mounted on a big steel frame,” he said.

“We’ll make sure people will be able to view it.”

Federation Training is the Victorian provider of aircraft maintenance training.

It inherited the old RB211 from the Kangan Institute, based at Broadmeadows, which has exited the aviation training market.

The engine was built for planes such as the Lockheed TriStar.

The Ballarat Aviation Museum has aircraft on display dating past World War II.