Pratt & Whitney

Early history

In April 1925, Frederick Rentschler, an Ohio native and former executive at Wright Aeronautical, was determined to start an aviation-related business of his own. His social network included Edward Deeds, another prominent Ohioan of the early aviation industry, and Frederick's brother Gordon Rentschler, both of whom were on the board of Niles Bement Pond, then one of the largest machine tool corporations in the world. Frederick Rentschler approached these men as he sought capital and assets for his new venture. Deeds and G. Rentschler persuaded the board of Niles Bement Pond that their Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool (P&WMT) subsidiary of Hartford, Connecticut, should provide the funding and location to build a new aircraft engine being developed by Rentschler, George J. Mead, and colleagues, all formerly of Wright Aeronautical. Conceived and designed by Mead, the new engine would be a large, air-cooled, radial design. Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool was going through a period of self-revision at the time to prepare itself for the post-World War I era, discontinuing old product lines and incubating new ones. World War I had been profitable to P&WMT, but the peace brought a predictable glut to the machine tool market, as contracts with governments were canceled and the market in used, recently built tools competed against new ones. P&WMT's future growth would depend on innovation. Having idle factory space and capital available at this historical moment, to be invested wherever good return seemed available, P&WMT saw the post-war aviation industry, both military and civil (commercial, private), as one with some of the greatest growth and development potential available anywhere for the next few decades. It lent Rentschler US$250,000, the use of the Pratt & Whitney name, and space in their building. This was the beginning of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company. Pratt & Whitney Aircraft's first engine, the 425-horsepower (317 kW) R-1340 Wasp, was completed on Christmas Eve 1925. On its third test run it easily passed the U.S. Navy qualification test in March 1926; by October 1926, the U.S. Navy had ordered 200. The Wasp exhibited performance and reliability that revolutionized American aviation. The R-1340 powered the aircraft of Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, and many other record flights.

The R-1340 was followed by another very successful engine, the R-985 Wasp Junior. Eventually a whole Wasp series was developed. Both engines are still in use in agricultural aircraft around the world and produce more power than their original design criteria.

George Mead soon led the next step in the field of large, state-of-the-art, air-cooled, radial aircraft engines (which the Wasp dominated) when Pratt & Whitney released its R-1690 Hornet. It was basically "a bigger Wasp".

In 1929, Rentschler ended his association with Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool and merged Pratt & Whitney Aircraft with Boeing and other companies to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC). His agreement allowed him to carry the Pratt & Whitney name with him to his new corporation. Only five years later, in 1934, the federal government of U.S. banned common ownership of airplane manufacturers and airlines. Pratt & Whitney was merged with UATC's other manufacturing interests east of the Mississippi River as United Aircraft Corporation, with Rentschler as president. In 1975, United Aircraft Corporation became United Technologies.

21st century

In October 2014, Pratt & Whitney was awarded a $592 million contract with the Department of Defense (DoD) to supply 36 F135 engines for the F-35 fighter.

In January 2017, ten employees, including the head of the F135 engine program, reportedly left the company after expenses incurred to transport South Korean officials to the company's West Palm Beach, Florida facility in 2012 were deemed unethical.

In 2020, United Technologies merged with Raytheon Company to form Raytheon Technologies, with Pratt & Whitney becoming one of the new corporation's four main subsidiaries.

In November 2022, Pratt & Whitney was awarded a contract for nearly $4.4 billion by the US DoD to build 100 jet engines for the U.S. military's Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps branches.

As of May 2023, Pratt & Whitney was "struggling to support its fleet of passenger jets with enough spare parts and engines" which had consequences for airlines worldwide who had to ground their Airbus A320 Neo and Airbus A220. The durability of the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofan engine since its inception in 2016 has been the central issue.

In July 2023, Pratt & Whitney issued a product recall that would affect hundreds of jet engines. The recall was issued due to a concern of metal parts being contaminated that could lead to cracking over time. In August 2023, airlines in the US, Europe and Asia announced that they would be temporarily reducing some flights so they could inspect aircraft affected by the recall. As of September 2023, it was estimated that around 3,000 engines might have been manufactured with flawed components.