Pratt & Whitney history

In June 1927, the government opened mail delivery contracts to private airline companies.

Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co., Ltd. was established in 1928.

The companies were incorporated on January 19, 1929, as the United Aircraft and Transport Company.

In 1930 Boeing's designers developed a fast new aircraft called the 247, which was fitted with Mead's newest engine, the Hornet.

A worker on the final assembly of a WASP engine in the East Hartford plant, 1940 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

The company eventually built or leased factory space in seven additional plants, and by 1943 Pratt & Whitney employed 40,000 people.

Directory of Metalworking Machinery, 1951, pg.

Jack Connors explains how Pratt & Whitney came from behind the competition developing gas turbines after the war with the debut of the J57, which powered the B-52 in 1952 and later the Air Force Century Series fighters (F-100, F-101, F-102) and the Navy A3D, F4D, and F-8 airplanes.

The engine designed to do so, the J57, was introduced in 1953, rated at 13,500 pounds of thrust.

In production for 30 years, the J52 was built for the Hound Dog missile in 1960, but later powered a series of naval aircraft.

Gray subsequently diversified the company and changed its name to United Technologies in 1975.

By 1988 competition and deregulation drove commercial airlines into near bankruptcy, while fuel prices dropped.

The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines, by Richard A. Leyes and William A. Fleming, 1999, provided information about the establishment of the aircraft engine companies.