Pratt & Whitney и все вокруг
tLS
Старожил
A combined 739 A320neo-family jets, A220s and E-Jets E2 are now tagged by data analytics firm Cirium as in “storage” – about one-third of the roughly 2,310 aircraft globally powered by P&W’s line-up of PW1000G geared turbofans (GTFs).
Number of parked GTF-powered jets inches up as engine recall continues
Airlines globally now have 739 Airbus A320neo-family and Embraer E-Jet E2s jets parked, up from 687 in October last year.
www.flightglobal.com
февраль, сейчас меньше должно быть
ВладТ
Местный
СЕВС
Местный
более 10 но менее 20%
Chap
Новичок
Покромничал ИИ, и в вопросе простаивающих, и в количестве бортов с ГТФ.
на начало 24г простаивающими называлось 670 бортов, из них 500+ на а320
670 самолетов с редукторными двигателями P&W не выполняют полеты; их число продолжает расти
Пик выведенных из эксплуатации ВС с PW1000G ожидается в II квартале
По суммарному числу бортов с ГТФом, так же в начале 24г, называлось порядка 2000 штук.
AiK-23
Местный
G8000
Старожил
Статья посвященная столетию Пратт
“The principal factor for the necessary dependability [of flying equipment] is the engine. It is toward this goal that the principal efforts of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company will be directed.” Thus wrote 37-year-old company President Frederick Rentschler, setting out the goals for incorporation on July 22, 1925. So began the story of Pratt & Whitney.
Propelled by breakthrough designs and the urgency of war, the company grew to 40,000 people by 1945. Pratt pistons would power about 70 different U.S. military aircraft models by the end of World War II. Eager for more, the engine-maker ventured over the next 80 years into bigger pistons and ultimately turbojets, turboprops, turbofans and rockets.
In January 1926, Aviation—the precursor of Aviation Week—visited the engine-maker in Hartford, Connecticut. In a 40 X 50 ft. experimental shop that once stored tobacco, a team led by George Mead and Andrew Willgoos worked on Pratt’s first engine. “Our staff correspondent was permitted a view—very fleeting though it was—of a new type of aeronautical engine in the assembly room. . . . Its striking appearance indicated something new and unusual in radial engine design,” Aviation reported.
The 400-hp Wasp radial was a radically simple, cleverly engineered design that used air cooling rather than the liquid cooling popular then. The Feb. 15, 1926, edition noted the nine-cylinder engine “develops about the same horsepower as the Liberty [water-cooled engine] on a reduction of about 200 lb. in dry weight.” The U.S. Navy was impressed, too, and in April 1926 awarded Pratt its first contract—for six Wasp engines worth $92,710.
Not far behind was Pratt’s second engine, the 525-hp Hornet. A team of just six engineers and 20 mechanics designed and built the first three Wasp prototypes and the first Hornet in nine months for just over $200,000.
“It is fully realized that aeronautics, particularly engine types, can never stand still,” noted the edition from Aug 9. 1926. How true. Within two years, Aviation reported in May 21, 1928, the Wasp was installed in “no less than 20 various types of commercial planes.” The same year, Boeing ordered 105 Hornet engines to power mail planes, paving the way for the companies to merge in 1929 as the United Aircraft and Transport Corp. The marriage would not last long. In 1934, amid antitrust concerns, Pratt, Sikorsky, Vought and Hamilton Standard were spun off into United Aircraft, later United Technologies, and now part of RTX.
World War II dominated Pratt & Whitney’s story through 1945 and guided its trajectory well into the following decade—including its pivotal move into jet development. Pratt and its licensees—such as Buick, Chevrolet, Continental Motors, Jacobs Aircraft and Nash-Kelvinator—churned out 363,619 engines to power everything from Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and Consolidated B-24 Liberators to Douglas C-47 Dakotas and North American AT-6 Texans. In November 1943, reporting on delivery of the 100,000th engine, Aviation said: “Production of B-24 P&W engines is at a record high in Buick plants and continues to accelerate.”
Pratt was also working on vital improvements in performance and durability. A report in the Dec. 6, 1943 edition of what had become Aviation News detailed the previously secret technology of water-injection power boost: a device that “makes possible added bursts of speed in planes to gain position on an enemy or to take successful evasive action heretofore not possible.” That system became standard on Vought F4U Corsairs, Grumman F6F Hellcats and Thunderbolts.
When the war ended, Pratt faced vastly reduced orderbooks and surplus capacity. In its Sept. 9, 1946, edition, Aviation News reported on two initiatives to bridge to the future: production of big piston engines for the growing airliner market and the all-important move into jets.
Announcing the jet plan in a statement to shareholders, Rentschler said United Aircraft directors “authorized substantial capital expenditures for new engineering facilities to be devoted exclusively to developing jet and gas turbine type engines.” United Aircraft was counting on continued broad use of piston engines for another five years before being superseded by jets.
Pratt’s first real chance to develop expertise came with the J42/JT-6B Turbo-Wasp, a license-built version of the 5,000-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce Nene. Developed for the Grumman F9F-2 Panther, the engine “required complete redrawing of design drawings, complete redesign of the accessory case to fit U.S. Navy accessories, substitution of magnesium for aluminum in several assemblies and the design and fabrication of new tooling,” reported what was now Aviation Week on Jan. 3, 1949.
The J42 was followed by the J48, a more powerful turbojet based on the Rolls-Royce Tay. “Pratt & Whitney’s powerful new turbojet J48 roared out a challenge to other American jet engines last week from its test cell here as its manufacturer staked out its claim as ‘the most powerful jet engine now flying in the U.S.’ and later added ‘in the world,’ ” trumpeted Aviation Week’s March 6, 1950, edition.
Pratt was learning quickly and about to unveil one of its most important engines—the J57. Designed around a radical twin-spool axial configuration, the 10,000-lb.-thrust engine was perfectly sized and timed for a new generation of fighters, bombers and airliners. Developed under tight security, its first images were released to Aviation Week for its Nov. 16, 1953, issue, which described the J57 as Pratt’s “Blue Chip” engine.
“The J57 engine is the most powerful turbojet known to be in production,” Pratt General Manager William Gwinn said. “We believe . . . that the J57 is at least two years in advance of any other engine we know in the turbojet field. This includes British as well as American jet engines.”
Known as the JT3 in civil guise, the J57 was quickly followed by the scaled up J75/JT4. The two engines equipped most Century-series fighters, including the J57-powered North American F-100 Super Sabre, which became the first fighter to go supersonic in level flight in May 1953. Besides the Boeing B-52, the J57 powered the Boeing KC-135 tanker, and the JT3 powered early Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 airliners.
Also in 1928, the Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. was established in Longeuil, Montreal, to build Wasps and Hornets. Pratt & Whitney Canada (PW&C) would become a global propulsion powerhouse in its own right.
Pratt’s advance into the booming civil jet market accelerated in 1958 with the JT3D, its first commercial turbofan. Derived from the J57/JT3, the engine’s two-stage fan replaced the first three stages of the JT3’s low-pressure compressor. Although the bypass ratio of 1.42:1 was modest by modern standards, the JT3D was a marked improvement over the turbojet with 35% more thrust, 15% better fuel burn and lower takeoff noise.
In its Jan. 26, 1959, edition, Aviation Week noted that the engine, which would power the B-52 as the TF33, used “large, advanced compressor blades developed in its J91 nuclear turbojet program,” a Cold War project canceled in 1961. Earlier JT3C turbojets had 90% common parts and could be converted into JT3Ds. About 3,000 of the more than 5,400 JT3D/TF33s made by 1985 were modified JT3Cs.
Pratt took a similar approach with another key commercial engine: the JT8D. Derived from the simple J52 turbojet, the core was combined with a new low-pressure spool and two-stage fan. Targeted at Boeing’s 727, a trijet with a buried center engine, the JT8D was enclosed in a full-length bypass duct. First flown in 1964, the engine also went on to power the Sud Aviation Caravelle, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 737; more than 16,000 were built by the mid-1980s.
The JT3D and JT8D cemented Pratt’s dominance of the jet airliner market, a position it built on to develop the high-bypass JT9D. Derived from the STF-200/JTF-14E, unsuccessfully bid to power the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy airlifter, the turbofan powered the first flight of the Boeing 747 in 1969 and became a mainstay of the first-generation widebody era. With a 5:1 bypass ratio, the JT9D also powered Airbus’ A300 and A310, Boeing’s 767 and McDonnell Douglas’ DC-10, with 3,200 made when production ended in 1990.
Pratt developed more secretive technologies in the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of the most impressive involving powerplants for two high-altitude, high-speed Lockheed Skunk Works projects—the hydrogen-powered CL-400 Suntan and the Mach 3-plus A-11/12, forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird.
In the April 2, 1962, edition—four years after the termination of Suntan—the magazine reported on Pratt’s air-breathing hydrogen engine, dubbed Project 304. The engine incorporated 4.5 mi. of small-diameter tubing and 4,000 vacuum-tight joints. “Not much was known about the characteristics of liquid hydrogen then, and what was believed about it was generally cause for pessimism,” Aviation Week noted. “But [Pratt] found that hydrogen was safer to handle, that it burned better and had better thermodynamics characteristics than they expected.”
The work was not wasted: The Project 304 experience led the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA) to select Pratt to develop the LR115 rocket engine—better known as the RL10. Developed at Pratt’s new test site in West Palm Beach, Florida, the RL10 was the first U.S. liquid hydrogen rocket and continues to power the Centaur upper stage.
Florida was also the test site for the J58. Originally intended for a U.S. Navy Mach 3 interceptor, the engine was ultimately developed for the CIA’s A-12 and Air Force’s follow-on SR-71. Pratt developed an array of new materials to withstand the high-temperature operating regime; the design also featured a movable inlet spike and a unique bleed bypass cycle for flight at varying Mach numbers. The J58 remains one of Pratt’s most impressive air-breathing propulsion achievements.
Technology from the J58 and TF30, a fighter engine developed for the F-111, was poured into the JTF17, a 54,000-lb.-thrust engine for the proposed Boeing 2707 supersonic transport. Details were revealed in Aviation Week’s Feb. 28, 1966, issue, but the project was canceled in 1971.
In response to a 1967 joint U.S. Air Force and Navy request for engine proposals for the FX and F-14 air superiority fighter programs, Pratt developed the JTF22 afterburning turbofan. The March 2, 1970, edition of Aviation Week marked Pratt’s victory in the contest over GE, which was “once considered a clear leader in the multimillion-dollar competition.”
Named the F100 by the Air Force and the F401 by the Navy, the Pratt engines shared the same core and were developed in parallel. The naval version incorporated a larger fan and changes to the low-pressure spool for greater cruise efficiency but was later canceled due to costs and reliability issues. Early F-14s were instead powered by TF30s, though later models were reengined with GE’s F101-derived F110.
Despite early operational issues—which resulted in the “Great Engine War” of the 1980s between Pratt and GE over which company would power future General Dynamics F-16s—the F100 has enjoyed a successful career on the single-engine fighter and F-15s. Produced to this day, more than 7,300 F100s have been delivered, and the engine remains in operation in more than 23 air forces worldwide.
Aviation Week’s June 26, 1972, edition, published a month before the F-15’s first flight, noted the engine’s extensive development pedigree included input from the J58; Pratt’s lift-cruise engine demonstrator; the Air Force’s advanced turbine engine gas generator program and the initial engine development program that preceded the F100/F401. “The result is a short, lightweight, powerful augmented turbofan with what is believed to be the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any engine yet to go into production,” it said.
Commercial developments in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on second-generation high-bypass turbofans for new single- and twin-aisle transports. Pratt’s JT10D, which first ran in 1974, eventually morphed into the PW2000, a title adopted with the shift to the company’s new alphanumeric naming convention in 1980. “All designations consist of the letters ‘PW’ followed by three or four numerals,” reported the Dec. 15, 1980, edition. “Three numerals denote a P&W Canada engine, and four denote a domestic P&W engine.”
Launched for Boeing’s new 757, the PW2000 first ran in late 1981 and entered service in 1984. Aviation Week’s Jan. 25, 1982, edition reported that tests of the initial PW2037 version demonstrated “the lowest specific fuel consumption of any Pratt & Whitney engine ever tested, according to company officials.” The culmination of more than seven years of work, it was at the time “the first all-new commercial engine to be produced by the company in 10 years.”
New features of the engine, including single crystal turbine blades, active clearance control and electronic engine control, would also feature on two other new engines—the very-high-bypass PW4000 and the International Aero Engines V2500. Launched in 1982, the PW4000 was a clean-sheet successor to the JT9D and ran for the first time in 1984. The 52,000-62,000-lb.-thrust 94-in.-fan PW4000 debuted in service in June 1987 and went on to power the Airbus A300-600 and A310-300, Boeing 747-400 and 767-200/300, and McDonnell Douglas MD-11 widebodies.
With the coming launch of the Airbus A320 and the single-aisle market expanding, Pratt saw its share contracting and needed a new engine to replace the JT8D. To reduce risk and investment, Pratt signed a collaborative agreement with four other engine-makers to form International Aero Engines in March 1983. Bringing together Pratt, Rolls-Royce, MTU, Fiat and the Japanese Aero Engines Consortium, the new 25,000-lb.-thrust class engine was called the V2500 and would compete with GE-Safran joint venture CFM International’s CFM56.
Despite development challenges, the V2500 entered flight tests on an A320 in June 1988, and in 1993 powered the McDonnell Douglas MD-90 on its first flight. In 2011, Pratt acquired Rolls-Royce’s share of the consortium, which as of 2025 has delivered more than 7,800 V2500s.
Amid soaring energy prices and growing environmental pressures, Pratt began exploring concepts that would offer better propulsive efficiency starting in the mid-1980s by developing a propfan with Allison Gas Turbine. Aviation Week’s March 24, 1986, edition reported the two engine-makers had agreed to a joint venture, the first goal of which would be a “joint propfan demonstration program aimed at conducting flight tests on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft in 1987.”
The geared, counterrotating Model 578-DX demonstrator eventually began flight tests in 1989. However, despite predictions of up to 50% fuel savings compared with current engines, the two potential applications—Boeing’s 7J7 and the reengined MD-91/92X—were canceled, ending the program.
In parallel, Pratt studied other advanced concepts, including the counterrotating integrated shrouded propfan (CRISP) with MTU and Fiat, while work with Hamilton Standard focused on a single-rotor advanced ducted propulsor (ADP). Tests combined a PW2000 core with a 118.2-in.-dia. fan via a 40,000-hp. gearbox and were conducted at NASA Ames Research Center in 1993, helping pave the way for the geared turbofan (GTF).
“The industry learned from the days of the propfan engine that it did not do enough homework in technology development or in reassuring potential customers,” David Crow, Pratt senior vice president of engineering, said in Aviation Week’s July 26, 1993, edition. “We are not repeating this with the ADP.”
Eight years later, P&WC began tests of the advanced technology fan integrator (ATFI), a 12,500-lb.-thrust GTF combining a 48.7-in.-dia. fan via a gearbox with a PW308 core. Targeted at the 50-90-seat passenger aircraft market, the ATFI marked another major step toward the later GTF and again involved CRISP/ADP partners MTU and Fiat.
The start of AFTI tests in 2001 also signaled greater ambitions for P&WC. From humble beginnings, P&WC had entered the 1990s with a large family of turboprops, turboshafts and turbofans from its ubiquitous PT6 and JT15D product lines. In its Sept. 24, 1990, edition, Aviation Week reported that the company was examining ways to boost the power levels of its PW100 regional turboprop, PW200 turboshaft and newly certified PW300 business jet engine. By mid-2025, more than 6,100 PW100/150s and 6,300 PW300s had been produced.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Pratt won two spectacular military engine deals: the F119 for Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) and the follow-on F135 for Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Pratt’s multibillion-dollar winning streak traced its roots to the PW5000, a new centerline design targeting the ATF contest that combined its homegrown combat engine work with technology from the Air Force’s advanced gas generator and demonstration programs.
Configured with an advanced compressor, counterrotating turbine stages as well as blisked fan and compressor stages, the F119 was also equipped with a fully variable convergent-divergent nozzle to supercruise, or operate supersonically on nonafterburning power. Detailing reasons for Pratt’s win in the April 29, 1991, edition of Aviation Week, Air Force Secretary Donald Rice said the F-22 and F119 combination “clearly offered better capability at lower cost.” Production F119 engines powered the first flight of the initial production-standard F-22 in September 1997. More than 500 F119s were delivered.
For the follow-on JSF, Pratt again leaned on the F119, this time augmented with features developed through the Air Force’s Integrated High-Performance Turbine Engine Technology program. Prototype YF119 variants powered the Boeing and Lockheed JSF demonstrator aircraft, and the engine was renamed the F135 when the F-35 was revealed as the winner in October 2001.
Pratt & Whitney’s aggressive commercial growth strategy expanded in the first decade of the 21st century with debuts of new commercial engines, ranging from the tiny 1,000-lb.-thrust class PW600 to the 80,000-lb.-thrust GP7200, as well as development of the company’s all-important GTF.
Intended for what was envisioned as a coming wave of very light jets, P&WC developed a mass-production assembly line approach for the PW600. Instead of the average eight-day production cycle for a new engine, “the goal for its PW600-series turbine engine is to do that on a moving assembly line in 8 hr. or less,” Aviation Week reported on Nov 21, 2005. The initial 950-lb.-thrust PW610F version was certified in 2006, with follow-on PW615F and PW617F variants also entering service in 2006 and 2008.
At the other end of the power scale, the jointly developed GE-Pratt GP7200 made its first run 2004 and, at the end of the year, began flight tests on GE’s 747 flying testbed. Combining the core of the GE90 with the PW4000 low-pressure system, the engine powered the Airbus A380 for the first time in 2006 and entered service two years later with Emirates Airlines.
Pratt’s most pivotal commercial development, however, was the GTF, which marked a major milestone in November 2007 with the start of ground tests. Based on the core of the PW6000, the demonstrator helped prove the concept and particularly the operation of the 3:1 reduction gear system. The market was also stirring: Mitsubishi selected the GTF for its regional jet in October 2007, paving the way for the official naming of the GTF as the PW1000G family the following July. The program’s momentum grew further in July 2008 with Bombardier’s launch of the PW1500G-powered C Series, rebranded as the A220 a decade later with the program’s acquisition by Airbus.
Following key noise tests of the demonstrator engine on an A340-600 in late 2008, Aviation Week’s June 15, 2009, edition reported that Pratt had “proven with data that the PW1000G will operate at Stage 4 minus 20 dB. This is very important, since it means the noise footprint for flight will stay within airport bounds.” That boosted hopes of winning a place on the reengined A320neo, which Pratt achieved in 2010, when the PW1100G was announced as an option on the new Airbus. Yakovlev also selected a version of the engine for the MC-21 airliner.
P&WC also leveraged the core of the PW1000G in quietly developing the PW800, a new business jet engine family. Originally sized around the PW1200G core, the engine was later re-baselined on the larger PW1500G to “suit the emerging ‘10K’ 10,000-lb.-plus thrust market,” reported Aviation Week in Oct.28, 2014. First run in 2012 and flight-tested on Pratt’s 747SP flying testbed in 2013, the engine was unveiled in 2014 as the powerplant for the new Gulfstream G500/600. Dassault later also selected it for the Falcon 6X.
Development of the PW1000G family marked another significant milestone in September 2013, when Bombardier’s CSeries airliner made its first flight in Montreal. Aviation Week reported that “takeoff of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared-turbofan-powered aircraft from Runway 06 was extraordinarily quiet.”
On the military side, Pratt’s F135 powered the F-35 for its first flight in December 2006, marking the start of an extensive test program that was eventually completed in 2018 after 9,200 sorties and 17,000 flight hours. Testing included evaluation of the F135-600 powered F-35 short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant and the F135-400 powered F-35C naval variant. As of this year, production of the F135 has exceeded 1,300 engines in support of the global F-35 fleet, which has grown to more than 1,200 aircraft.
In the decade leading up to its 100th year, Pratt focused on rebuilding its commercial single-aisle business through the introduction of the GTF on three airliner families while enhancing performance with the development of the PW1000G’s first major upgrade package—the Advantage.
The flurry of GTF first-flight milestones began in 2014 with the PW1100G-powered A320neo, followed just over a year later by the PW1200G-powered Mitsubishi MRJ. Although the MRJ was ultimately canceled, the Japanese airliner project played a big part in pushing the GTF toward initial launch. The first flight of the PW1500G-powered stretched C Series CS300, later renamed the A220-300, occurred in 2015.
The GTF began revenue-earning service when Lufthansa began operating its first Pratt-powered A320neo in January 2016. Two months later, flight tests of the A321neo with the most powerful 35,000-lb.-thrust GTF—the PW1135G—got underway in Toulouse. The PW1100G-powered Airbus trio was finally rounded off in 2019 with the test debut of the GTF-equipped A319.
Pratt’s growing GTF user group soon included Embraer, which flew its first PW1900G-powered E190-E2 in May 2016. Reporting on the flight in Aviation Week on May 26, Embraer test pilot Mozart Louzada noted the Pratt engine provided a noticeable improvement in acceleration and responsiveness over the baseline engine. “We have a Legacy 500 chase plane, and we were climbing faster than they were,” Louzada said. “I had to throttle back to let them catch up. It took us less than 18 min. to climb from 20,000 ft. to 41,000 ft., and that was without using maximum available thrust.”
The high tempo of first flights continued with the first flight of the E195-E2 in March 2017, some three months ahead of schedule. The next month saw the flight-test debut of the Irkut—now Yakovlev—MC-21 powered by the PW1400G variant in 2017. The E190-E2 entered service in April 2018; the E195-E2 followed in September 2019.
Although the GTF successfully delivered up to 20% lower fuel burn and significantly lower noise than earlier-generation engines, a durability and maintenance issues arose—particularly on the PW1100G. Pratt responded with design improvements, an expanded maintenance network and a set of short-, medium- and long-term durability upgrades. Much of these focused on the hot section and derived from the Advantage upgrade to provide the bulk of the package’s doubling of time on wing. Certificated this year, the Advantage also provided up to 8% more takeoff thrust.
P&WC marked the 50,000th delivery milestone for the PT6 in 2020. Sixty years after the turbine was first developed, the engine-maker continues to produce it in large numbers. By mid-2025, more than 64,000 PT6s had been built to power about 21,000 aircraft. With more than 500 million flight hours amassed by over 70 versions of the engine on about 130 types of aircraft, the PT6 remains the leading powerplant in the general aviation sector.
Looking forward, alongside other sustainable initiatives, such as studies of hydrogen fuel, Pratt is modifying a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 into a hybrid-electric demonstrator by replacing one of its PW120 turboprops with a 2-megawatt parallel hybrid-electric powertrain system. That system will include a 1-megawatt thermal engine and a 1-megawatt, 1-kilovolt electric drive from sister RTX company Collins Aerospace.
Ongoing military programs include the F135 engine core upgrade to provide the F-35 with added power and thermal management capacity and support of the recently debuted Pratt-powered Northrop Grumman B-21 stealth bomber. Work is also underway on the XA103 adaptive engine aimed at future combat aircraft, such as the Boeing F-47 fighter and others. Parts are in assembly for the ground demonstrator, which is expected to start test runs later this decade.
Propelled by breakthrough designs and the urgency of war, the company grew to 40,000 people by 1945. Pratt pistons would power about 70 different U.S. military aircraft models by the end of World War II. Eager for more, the engine-maker ventured over the next 80 years into bigger pistons and ultimately turbojets, turboprops, turbofans and rockets.
In January 1926, Aviation—the precursor of Aviation Week—visited the engine-maker in Hartford, Connecticut. In a 40 X 50 ft. experimental shop that once stored tobacco, a team led by George Mead and Andrew Willgoos worked on Pratt’s first engine. “Our staff correspondent was permitted a view—very fleeting though it was—of a new type of aeronautical engine in the assembly room. . . . Its striking appearance indicated something new and unusual in radial engine design,” Aviation reported.
The 400-hp Wasp radial was a radically simple, cleverly engineered design that used air cooling rather than the liquid cooling popular then. The Feb. 15, 1926, edition noted the nine-cylinder engine “develops about the same horsepower as the Liberty [water-cooled engine] on a reduction of about 200 lb. in dry weight.” The U.S. Navy was impressed, too, and in April 1926 awarded Pratt its first contract—for six Wasp engines worth $92,710.
Not far behind was Pratt’s second engine, the 525-hp Hornet. A team of just six engineers and 20 mechanics designed and built the first three Wasp prototypes and the first Hornet in nine months for just over $200,000.
“It is fully realized that aeronautics, particularly engine types, can never stand still,” noted the edition from Aug 9. 1926. How true. Within two years, Aviation reported in May 21, 1928, the Wasp was installed in “no less than 20 various types of commercial planes.” The same year, Boeing ordered 105 Hornet engines to power mail planes, paving the way for the companies to merge in 1929 as the United Aircraft and Transport Corp. The marriage would not last long. In 1934, amid antitrust concerns, Pratt, Sikorsky, Vought and Hamilton Standard were spun off into United Aircraft, later United Technologies, and now part of RTX.
World War II dominated Pratt & Whitney’s story through 1945 and guided its trajectory well into the following decade—including its pivotal move into jet development. Pratt and its licensees—such as Buick, Chevrolet, Continental Motors, Jacobs Aircraft and Nash-Kelvinator—churned out 363,619 engines to power everything from Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and Consolidated B-24 Liberators to Douglas C-47 Dakotas and North American AT-6 Texans. In November 1943, reporting on delivery of the 100,000th engine, Aviation said: “Production of B-24 P&W engines is at a record high in Buick plants and continues to accelerate.”
Pratt was also working on vital improvements in performance and durability. A report in the Dec. 6, 1943 edition of what had become Aviation News detailed the previously secret technology of water-injection power boost: a device that “makes possible added bursts of speed in planes to gain position on an enemy or to take successful evasive action heretofore not possible.” That system became standard on Vought F4U Corsairs, Grumman F6F Hellcats and Thunderbolts.
When the war ended, Pratt faced vastly reduced orderbooks and surplus capacity. In its Sept. 9, 1946, edition, Aviation News reported on two initiatives to bridge to the future: production of big piston engines for the growing airliner market and the all-important move into jets.
Announcing the jet plan in a statement to shareholders, Rentschler said United Aircraft directors “authorized substantial capital expenditures for new engineering facilities to be devoted exclusively to developing jet and gas turbine type engines.” United Aircraft was counting on continued broad use of piston engines for another five years before being superseded by jets.
Pratt’s first real chance to develop expertise came with the J42/JT-6B Turbo-Wasp, a license-built version of the 5,000-lb.-thrust Rolls-Royce Nene. Developed for the Grumman F9F-2 Panther, the engine “required complete redrawing of design drawings, complete redesign of the accessory case to fit U.S. Navy accessories, substitution of magnesium for aluminum in several assemblies and the design and fabrication of new tooling,” reported what was now Aviation Week on Jan. 3, 1949.
The J42 was followed by the J48, a more powerful turbojet based on the Rolls-Royce Tay. “Pratt & Whitney’s powerful new turbojet J48 roared out a challenge to other American jet engines last week from its test cell here as its manufacturer staked out its claim as ‘the most powerful jet engine now flying in the U.S.’ and later added ‘in the world,’ ” trumpeted Aviation Week’s March 6, 1950, edition.
Pratt was learning quickly and about to unveil one of its most important engines—the J57. Designed around a radical twin-spool axial configuration, the 10,000-lb.-thrust engine was perfectly sized and timed for a new generation of fighters, bombers and airliners. Developed under tight security, its first images were released to Aviation Week for its Nov. 16, 1953, issue, which described the J57 as Pratt’s “Blue Chip” engine.
“The J57 engine is the most powerful turbojet known to be in production,” Pratt General Manager William Gwinn said. “We believe . . . that the J57 is at least two years in advance of any other engine we know in the turbojet field. This includes British as well as American jet engines.”
Known as the JT3 in civil guise, the J57 was quickly followed by the scaled up J75/JT4. The two engines equipped most Century-series fighters, including the J57-powered North American F-100 Super Sabre, which became the first fighter to go supersonic in level flight in May 1953. Besides the Boeing B-52, the J57 powered the Boeing KC-135 tanker, and the JT3 powered early Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 airliners.
Also in 1928, the Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. was established in Longeuil, Montreal, to build Wasps and Hornets. Pratt & Whitney Canada (PW&C) would become a global propulsion powerhouse in its own right.
Pratt’s advance into the booming civil jet market accelerated in 1958 with the JT3D, its first commercial turbofan. Derived from the J57/JT3, the engine’s two-stage fan replaced the first three stages of the JT3’s low-pressure compressor. Although the bypass ratio of 1.42:1 was modest by modern standards, the JT3D was a marked improvement over the turbojet with 35% more thrust, 15% better fuel burn and lower takeoff noise.
In its Jan. 26, 1959, edition, Aviation Week noted that the engine, which would power the B-52 as the TF33, used “large, advanced compressor blades developed in its J91 nuclear turbojet program,” a Cold War project canceled in 1961. Earlier JT3C turbojets had 90% common parts and could be converted into JT3Ds. About 3,000 of the more than 5,400 JT3D/TF33s made by 1985 were modified JT3Cs.
Pratt took a similar approach with another key commercial engine: the JT8D. Derived from the simple J52 turbojet, the core was combined with a new low-pressure spool and two-stage fan. Targeted at Boeing’s 727, a trijet with a buried center engine, the JT8D was enclosed in a full-length bypass duct. First flown in 1964, the engine also went on to power the Sud Aviation Caravelle, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 737; more than 16,000 were built by the mid-1980s.
The JT3D and JT8D cemented Pratt’s dominance of the jet airliner market, a position it built on to develop the high-bypass JT9D. Derived from the STF-200/JTF-14E, unsuccessfully bid to power the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy airlifter, the turbofan powered the first flight of the Boeing 747 in 1969 and became a mainstay of the first-generation widebody era. With a 5:1 bypass ratio, the JT9D also powered Airbus’ A300 and A310, Boeing’s 767 and McDonnell Douglas’ DC-10, with 3,200 made when production ended in 1990.
Pratt developed more secretive technologies in the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of the most impressive involving powerplants for two high-altitude, high-speed Lockheed Skunk Works projects—the hydrogen-powered CL-400 Suntan and the Mach 3-plus A-11/12, forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird.
In the April 2, 1962, edition—four years after the termination of Suntan—the magazine reported on Pratt’s air-breathing hydrogen engine, dubbed Project 304. The engine incorporated 4.5 mi. of small-diameter tubing and 4,000 vacuum-tight joints. “Not much was known about the characteristics of liquid hydrogen then, and what was believed about it was generally cause for pessimism,” Aviation Week noted. “But [Pratt] found that hydrogen was safer to handle, that it burned better and had better thermodynamics characteristics than they expected.”
The work was not wasted: The Project 304 experience led the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA) to select Pratt to develop the LR115 rocket engine—better known as the RL10. Developed at Pratt’s new test site in West Palm Beach, Florida, the RL10 was the first U.S. liquid hydrogen rocket and continues to power the Centaur upper stage.
Florida was also the test site for the J58. Originally intended for a U.S. Navy Mach 3 interceptor, the engine was ultimately developed for the CIA’s A-12 and Air Force’s follow-on SR-71. Pratt developed an array of new materials to withstand the high-temperature operating regime; the design also featured a movable inlet spike and a unique bleed bypass cycle for flight at varying Mach numbers. The J58 remains one of Pratt’s most impressive air-breathing propulsion achievements.
Technology from the J58 and TF30, a fighter engine developed for the F-111, was poured into the JTF17, a 54,000-lb.-thrust engine for the proposed Boeing 2707 supersonic transport. Details were revealed in Aviation Week’s Feb. 28, 1966, issue, but the project was canceled in 1971.
In response to a 1967 joint U.S. Air Force and Navy request for engine proposals for the FX and F-14 air superiority fighter programs, Pratt developed the JTF22 afterburning turbofan. The March 2, 1970, edition of Aviation Week marked Pratt’s victory in the contest over GE, which was “once considered a clear leader in the multimillion-dollar competition.”
Named the F100 by the Air Force and the F401 by the Navy, the Pratt engines shared the same core and were developed in parallel. The naval version incorporated a larger fan and changes to the low-pressure spool for greater cruise efficiency but was later canceled due to costs and reliability issues. Early F-14s were instead powered by TF30s, though later models were reengined with GE’s F101-derived F110.
Despite early operational issues—which resulted in the “Great Engine War” of the 1980s between Pratt and GE over which company would power future General Dynamics F-16s—the F100 has enjoyed a successful career on the single-engine fighter and F-15s. Produced to this day, more than 7,300 F100s have been delivered, and the engine remains in operation in more than 23 air forces worldwide.
Aviation Week’s June 26, 1972, edition, published a month before the F-15’s first flight, noted the engine’s extensive development pedigree included input from the J58; Pratt’s lift-cruise engine demonstrator; the Air Force’s advanced turbine engine gas generator program and the initial engine development program that preceded the F100/F401. “The result is a short, lightweight, powerful augmented turbofan with what is believed to be the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any engine yet to go into production,” it said.
Commercial developments in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on second-generation high-bypass turbofans for new single- and twin-aisle transports. Pratt’s JT10D, which first ran in 1974, eventually morphed into the PW2000, a title adopted with the shift to the company’s new alphanumeric naming convention in 1980. “All designations consist of the letters ‘PW’ followed by three or four numerals,” reported the Dec. 15, 1980, edition. “Three numerals denote a P&W Canada engine, and four denote a domestic P&W engine.”
Launched for Boeing’s new 757, the PW2000 first ran in late 1981 and entered service in 1984. Aviation Week’s Jan. 25, 1982, edition reported that tests of the initial PW2037 version demonstrated “the lowest specific fuel consumption of any Pratt & Whitney engine ever tested, according to company officials.” The culmination of more than seven years of work, it was at the time “the first all-new commercial engine to be produced by the company in 10 years.”
New features of the engine, including single crystal turbine blades, active clearance control and electronic engine control, would also feature on two other new engines—the very-high-bypass PW4000 and the International Aero Engines V2500. Launched in 1982, the PW4000 was a clean-sheet successor to the JT9D and ran for the first time in 1984. The 52,000-62,000-lb.-thrust 94-in.-fan PW4000 debuted in service in June 1987 and went on to power the Airbus A300-600 and A310-300, Boeing 747-400 and 767-200/300, and McDonnell Douglas MD-11 widebodies.
With the coming launch of the Airbus A320 and the single-aisle market expanding, Pratt saw its share contracting and needed a new engine to replace the JT8D. To reduce risk and investment, Pratt signed a collaborative agreement with four other engine-makers to form International Aero Engines in March 1983. Bringing together Pratt, Rolls-Royce, MTU, Fiat and the Japanese Aero Engines Consortium, the new 25,000-lb.-thrust class engine was called the V2500 and would compete with GE-Safran joint venture CFM International’s CFM56.
Despite development challenges, the V2500 entered flight tests on an A320 in June 1988, and in 1993 powered the McDonnell Douglas MD-90 on its first flight. In 2011, Pratt acquired Rolls-Royce’s share of the consortium, which as of 2025 has delivered more than 7,800 V2500s.
Amid soaring energy prices and growing environmental pressures, Pratt began exploring concepts that would offer better propulsive efficiency starting in the mid-1980s by developing a propfan with Allison Gas Turbine. Aviation Week’s March 24, 1986, edition reported the two engine-makers had agreed to a joint venture, the first goal of which would be a “joint propfan demonstration program aimed at conducting flight tests on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft in 1987.”
The geared, counterrotating Model 578-DX demonstrator eventually began flight tests in 1989. However, despite predictions of up to 50% fuel savings compared with current engines, the two potential applications—Boeing’s 7J7 and the reengined MD-91/92X—were canceled, ending the program.
In parallel, Pratt studied other advanced concepts, including the counterrotating integrated shrouded propfan (CRISP) with MTU and Fiat, while work with Hamilton Standard focused on a single-rotor advanced ducted propulsor (ADP). Tests combined a PW2000 core with a 118.2-in.-dia. fan via a 40,000-hp. gearbox and were conducted at NASA Ames Research Center in 1993, helping pave the way for the geared turbofan (GTF).
“The industry learned from the days of the propfan engine that it did not do enough homework in technology development or in reassuring potential customers,” David Crow, Pratt senior vice president of engineering, said in Aviation Week’s July 26, 1993, edition. “We are not repeating this with the ADP.”
Eight years later, P&WC began tests of the advanced technology fan integrator (ATFI), a 12,500-lb.-thrust GTF combining a 48.7-in.-dia. fan via a gearbox with a PW308 core. Targeted at the 50-90-seat passenger aircraft market, the ATFI marked another major step toward the later GTF and again involved CRISP/ADP partners MTU and Fiat.
The start of AFTI tests in 2001 also signaled greater ambitions for P&WC. From humble beginnings, P&WC had entered the 1990s with a large family of turboprops, turboshafts and turbofans from its ubiquitous PT6 and JT15D product lines. In its Sept. 24, 1990, edition, Aviation Week reported that the company was examining ways to boost the power levels of its PW100 regional turboprop, PW200 turboshaft and newly certified PW300 business jet engine. By mid-2025, more than 6,100 PW100/150s and 6,300 PW300s had been produced.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Pratt won two spectacular military engine deals: the F119 for Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) and the follow-on F135 for Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Pratt’s multibillion-dollar winning streak traced its roots to the PW5000, a new centerline design targeting the ATF contest that combined its homegrown combat engine work with technology from the Air Force’s advanced gas generator and demonstration programs.
Configured with an advanced compressor, counterrotating turbine stages as well as blisked fan and compressor stages, the F119 was also equipped with a fully variable convergent-divergent nozzle to supercruise, or operate supersonically on nonafterburning power. Detailing reasons for Pratt’s win in the April 29, 1991, edition of Aviation Week, Air Force Secretary Donald Rice said the F-22 and F119 combination “clearly offered better capability at lower cost.” Production F119 engines powered the first flight of the initial production-standard F-22 in September 1997. More than 500 F119s were delivered.
For the follow-on JSF, Pratt again leaned on the F119, this time augmented with features developed through the Air Force’s Integrated High-Performance Turbine Engine Technology program. Prototype YF119 variants powered the Boeing and Lockheed JSF demonstrator aircraft, and the engine was renamed the F135 when the F-35 was revealed as the winner in October 2001.
Pratt & Whitney’s aggressive commercial growth strategy expanded in the first decade of the 21st century with debuts of new commercial engines, ranging from the tiny 1,000-lb.-thrust class PW600 to the 80,000-lb.-thrust GP7200, as well as development of the company’s all-important GTF.
Intended for what was envisioned as a coming wave of very light jets, P&WC developed a mass-production assembly line approach for the PW600. Instead of the average eight-day production cycle for a new engine, “the goal for its PW600-series turbine engine is to do that on a moving assembly line in 8 hr. or less,” Aviation Week reported on Nov 21, 2005. The initial 950-lb.-thrust PW610F version was certified in 2006, with follow-on PW615F and PW617F variants also entering service in 2006 and 2008.
At the other end of the power scale, the jointly developed GE-Pratt GP7200 made its first run 2004 and, at the end of the year, began flight tests on GE’s 747 flying testbed. Combining the core of the GE90 with the PW4000 low-pressure system, the engine powered the Airbus A380 for the first time in 2006 and entered service two years later with Emirates Airlines.
Pratt’s most pivotal commercial development, however, was the GTF, which marked a major milestone in November 2007 with the start of ground tests. Based on the core of the PW6000, the demonstrator helped prove the concept and particularly the operation of the 3:1 reduction gear system. The market was also stirring: Mitsubishi selected the GTF for its regional jet in October 2007, paving the way for the official naming of the GTF as the PW1000G family the following July. The program’s momentum grew further in July 2008 with Bombardier’s launch of the PW1500G-powered C Series, rebranded as the A220 a decade later with the program’s acquisition by Airbus.
Following key noise tests of the demonstrator engine on an A340-600 in late 2008, Aviation Week’s June 15, 2009, edition reported that Pratt had “proven with data that the PW1000G will operate at Stage 4 minus 20 dB. This is very important, since it means the noise footprint for flight will stay within airport bounds.” That boosted hopes of winning a place on the reengined A320neo, which Pratt achieved in 2010, when the PW1100G was announced as an option on the new Airbus. Yakovlev also selected a version of the engine for the MC-21 airliner.
P&WC also leveraged the core of the PW1000G in quietly developing the PW800, a new business jet engine family. Originally sized around the PW1200G core, the engine was later re-baselined on the larger PW1500G to “suit the emerging ‘10K’ 10,000-lb.-plus thrust market,” reported Aviation Week in Oct.28, 2014. First run in 2012 and flight-tested on Pratt’s 747SP flying testbed in 2013, the engine was unveiled in 2014 as the powerplant for the new Gulfstream G500/600. Dassault later also selected it for the Falcon 6X.
Development of the PW1000G family marked another significant milestone in September 2013, when Bombardier’s CSeries airliner made its first flight in Montreal. Aviation Week reported that “takeoff of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared-turbofan-powered aircraft from Runway 06 was extraordinarily quiet.”
On the military side, Pratt’s F135 powered the F-35 for its first flight in December 2006, marking the start of an extensive test program that was eventually completed in 2018 after 9,200 sorties and 17,000 flight hours. Testing included evaluation of the F135-600 powered F-35 short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant and the F135-400 powered F-35C naval variant. As of this year, production of the F135 has exceeded 1,300 engines in support of the global F-35 fleet, which has grown to more than 1,200 aircraft.
In the decade leading up to its 100th year, Pratt focused on rebuilding its commercial single-aisle business through the introduction of the GTF on three airliner families while enhancing performance with the development of the PW1000G’s first major upgrade package—the Advantage.
The flurry of GTF first-flight milestones began in 2014 with the PW1100G-powered A320neo, followed just over a year later by the PW1200G-powered Mitsubishi MRJ. Although the MRJ was ultimately canceled, the Japanese airliner project played a big part in pushing the GTF toward initial launch. The first flight of the PW1500G-powered stretched C Series CS300, later renamed the A220-300, occurred in 2015.
The GTF began revenue-earning service when Lufthansa began operating its first Pratt-powered A320neo in January 2016. Two months later, flight tests of the A321neo with the most powerful 35,000-lb.-thrust GTF—the PW1135G—got underway in Toulouse. The PW1100G-powered Airbus trio was finally rounded off in 2019 with the test debut of the GTF-equipped A319.
Pratt’s growing GTF user group soon included Embraer, which flew its first PW1900G-powered E190-E2 in May 2016. Reporting on the flight in Aviation Week on May 26, Embraer test pilot Mozart Louzada noted the Pratt engine provided a noticeable improvement in acceleration and responsiveness over the baseline engine. “We have a Legacy 500 chase plane, and we were climbing faster than they were,” Louzada said. “I had to throttle back to let them catch up. It took us less than 18 min. to climb from 20,000 ft. to 41,000 ft., and that was without using maximum available thrust.”
The high tempo of first flights continued with the first flight of the E195-E2 in March 2017, some three months ahead of schedule. The next month saw the flight-test debut of the Irkut—now Yakovlev—MC-21 powered by the PW1400G variant in 2017. The E190-E2 entered service in April 2018; the E195-E2 followed in September 2019.
Although the GTF successfully delivered up to 20% lower fuel burn and significantly lower noise than earlier-generation engines, a durability and maintenance issues arose—particularly on the PW1100G. Pratt responded with design improvements, an expanded maintenance network and a set of short-, medium- and long-term durability upgrades. Much of these focused on the hot section and derived from the Advantage upgrade to provide the bulk of the package’s doubling of time on wing. Certificated this year, the Advantage also provided up to 8% more takeoff thrust.
P&WC marked the 50,000th delivery milestone for the PT6 in 2020. Sixty years after the turbine was first developed, the engine-maker continues to produce it in large numbers. By mid-2025, more than 64,000 PT6s had been built to power about 21,000 aircraft. With more than 500 million flight hours amassed by over 70 versions of the engine on about 130 types of aircraft, the PT6 remains the leading powerplant in the general aviation sector.
Looking forward, alongside other sustainable initiatives, such as studies of hydrogen fuel, Pratt is modifying a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 into a hybrid-electric demonstrator by replacing one of its PW120 turboprops with a 2-megawatt parallel hybrid-electric powertrain system. That system will include a 1-megawatt thermal engine and a 1-megawatt, 1-kilovolt electric drive from sister RTX company Collins Aerospace.
Ongoing military programs include the F135 engine core upgrade to provide the F-35 with added power and thermal management capacity and support of the recently debuted Pratt-powered Northrop Grumman B-21 stealth bomber. Work is also underway on the XA103 adaptive engine aimed at future combat aircraft, such as the Boeing F-47 fighter and others. Parts are in assembly for the ground demonstrator, which is expected to start test runs later this decade.
G8000
Старожил
Shortly after the 2023 Paris Air Show, Pratt & Whitney revealed issues with tainted powder metal in some parts of its PW1000G geared turbofan (GTF) engines, which were in addition to previously disclosed durability issues for the powerplant’s heat exchanger.
The analysis looks at the number of “ground days” that the fleets have had. This does not directly correlate with aircraft on the ground without engines, as some of these aircraft could legitimately be undergoing maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), or simply be a function of airline operations. However, at a high level, the trends still follow suit.
In the six months after Prattʼs announcement, the number of “ground days” as a percentage crept up from around 20%; for Airbus A320neo family aircraft, they were up to 40%. Then, there was a plateau where the percentage fluctuated around the 38% mark. In 2025, the A320neo family trend has once again begun to drop, as Pratt works through the engine issues and gets them back to operators for the northern hemisphere summer season.
The Airbus A220 has also been impacted by GTF issues, but not at such an extreme level. Again, “ground days” began to rise, and large operators of the A220s like airBaltic certainly voiced disappointment in the availability of engines, and therefore aircraft. Over the first half of 2025, we have again witnessed the progress Pratt is making in returning engines to operators to get them back in the air, and the A220 currently has the “best” rate.
The Embraer E2 family has also been affected. However, their profile is slightly different, with a slowly increasing “ground days” trend through the end of 2024, then a strong downward trend starting at the beginning of 2025.
The average outcome is a positive trend to fewer “ground days” as Pratt chugs its way through the backlog of engines. With the arrival of the GTF Advantage, which will start rolling off the production line in 2026, the impact of the durability issues and the powder metal issue will hopefully be a thing of the past.
The analysis looks at the number of “ground days” that the fleets have had. This does not directly correlate with aircraft on the ground without engines, as some of these aircraft could legitimately be undergoing maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), or simply be a function of airline operations. However, at a high level, the trends still follow suit.
In the six months after Prattʼs announcement, the number of “ground days” as a percentage crept up from around 20%; for Airbus A320neo family aircraft, they were up to 40%. Then, there was a plateau where the percentage fluctuated around the 38% mark. In 2025, the A320neo family trend has once again begun to drop, as Pratt works through the engine issues and gets them back to operators for the northern hemisphere summer season.
The Airbus A220 has also been impacted by GTF issues, but not at such an extreme level. Again, “ground days” began to rise, and large operators of the A220s like airBaltic certainly voiced disappointment in the availability of engines, and therefore aircraft. Over the first half of 2025, we have again witnessed the progress Pratt is making in returning engines to operators to get them back in the air, and the A220 currently has the “best” rate.
The Embraer E2 family has also been affected. However, their profile is slightly different, with a slowly increasing “ground days” trend through the end of 2024, then a strong downward trend starting at the beginning of 2025.
The average outcome is a positive trend to fewer “ground days” as Pratt chugs its way through the backlog of engines. With the arrival of the GTF Advantage, which will start rolling off the production line in 2026, the impact of the durability issues and the powder metal issue will hopefully be a thing of the past.
A.F.
take-off.ru
В этой статье, похоже, не говорится о более ранней истории этой марки. На самом деле компания Pratt & Whitney была основана американскими инженерами, изобретателями и предпринимателями Фрэнсисом Праттом и Амосом Уитни еще в 1860 году, но к авиационному моторостроению никакого отношения, разумеется, не имела: она занималась разработкой и производством станков и оборудования для швейной промышленности и производства стрелкового оружия. Сам Пратт умер еще в 1902 году, а Уитни -- в 1920-м, т.е. задолго до того, как к их компании обратился с просьбой об инвестициях и предоставлении производственных площадей для изготовления разрабатываемого им авиамотора воздушного охлаждения Фредерик Рентшлер, ранее работавший в компании Райт. Денег и помещение ему дали, так и появился 100 лет назад первый авиадвигатель Pratt & Whitney -- Wasp. Правда, 4 года спустя Рентшлер решил уйти в "самостоятельное плавание", основав собственную компанию, но по соглашению с Pratt & Whitney "унаследовав" эту марку. Сами же господа Пратт и Уитни с авиадвигателями связаны никак не были и не дожили до того, как был создан первый авиадвигатель Pratt & Whitney
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astoronny
Probatorem orbis terrarum
...но я больше люблю генерала по фамилии Электрик... или это его погоняло в узких кругах?!
Ту-155
Бывший
astoronny
Probatorem orbis terrarum
...того кличут немного по-другому -- Американец Стандардный...Вы бы, конечно очернительски хотели бы чтобы он был генерал Сантехник?
#ау
№ау
A.F.
take-off.ru
вроде почетный член АН СССР товарищ Эдисон (ну тот, который с лампочкой) в армии не служил, наверно отсрочку имел как изобретатель-рационализатор? Ну может ему "по совокупности заслуг" так сказать генеральское звание присвоили? Ибо ноги у GE вроде ж растут из Edison General Electric Co.
A.F.
take-off.ru
Кстати, вот обратил внимание, у них PW обычно сокращенно зовут Pratt (без Whitney), а у нас (неформально, конечно) -- "Пратты" (во множ.числе, с ударением на Ы). Почему так? Наверно по аналогии с "сухими" и "пермяками"?