747 with new Rolls-Royce engine flyover canceled due to weather Low cloud cover disrupts plans of Rolls-Royce, which is testing a Boeing 747 equipped with an advanced engine.

Low clouds foiled Rolls-Royce's plan to stage a low-altitude flyover of Indianapolis with a Boeing 747 on Tuesday.

The engine manufacturer had gone to the extent of getting Federal Aviation Administration clearance to allow the 747, equipped with a Rolls test engine, to buzz the Downtown during the noon hour. But meteorological logic and safe flying conditions argued against it.

"The cloud ceiling was simply too low," Rolls spokesman Joel Reuter said.

Rolls wanted to show off the plane to its employees and the public. One of the four engines mounted on its wings is an advanced, energy-efficient design that Rolls is testing with the help of defense contractor Raytheon.

Defense contractor Raytheon, which also operates a facility in Indianapolis and has a role in monitoring the new engine, had co-sponsored the attempted flyover.

About 150 Rolls engineers in Indianapolis are working on the new engine, called the Trent 1000-TEN. It is 3 percent more fuel efficient than its predecessor, the Trent 1000 engine, the engine used on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger plane, Rolls said.

The jumbo jet was flying from Michigan, where it had been undergoing maintenance, to its home testing site at Tucson, Ariz.

Wiith Indianapolis socked in by low clouds, "after receiving communications from the FAA, the aircraft’s flight crews waived off the approach and continued on to its destination in Tucson," Reuter said.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317)444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.