 | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | United Aircraft and Transport Corporation |
| Founded | September 26, 1934 |
| Fate | Renamed to United Technologies effective May 1, 1975 |
| Successor | United Technologies |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Frederick Rentschler, founder;George J. Mead, senior engineer |
TheUnited Aircraft Corporation was an Americanaircraft manufacturer formed by the break-up ofUnited Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1934. In 1975, the company becameUnited Technologies, which in 2020 merged withRaytheon to form Raytheon Technologies, later renamedRTX Corporation.[1]
TheAir Mail scandal of the early 1930s resulted in a rebuilt air mail system, under theAir Mail Act of 1934, in which carriers and their equipment manufacturers (e.g., of airframes and engines) could no longer be owned by the same company.[2] TheUnited Aircraft and Transport Corporation was broken up on September 26, 1934, as a result of this new law. The corporation's airline interests went on to becomeUnited Airlines. Its manufacturing interests east of theMississippi River—Pratt & Whitney,Chance Vought, andSikorsky—remained together as the new United Aircraft Corporation, headquartered inHartford withFrederick Rentschler, founder of Pratt & Whitney, as president.[a] All manufacturing interests west of the Mississippi became part of a revivedBoeing Aircraft.[2][4]
The latter half of the 1930s saw military procurement buildups around the world as governments foresaw possible war on the horizon. United Aircraft sold to both theUnited States Army and theUnited States Navy, but the Navy'srequirements forcarrier-based aircraft, with maximizedpower-to-weight ratios for minimized takeoff runway length, were always more in tune with the specialties of United's subsidiaries (Pratt & Whitney, Chance Vought, and Sikorsky).[2]
United Aircraft became a component of theDow Jones Industrial Average on March 4, 1939, when United Aircraft andAT&T were added to replaceNash Motors andInternational Business Machines. United Aircraft, subsequently known as United Technologies, has remained a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since that time.
For the subsidiaries of United Aircraft, and for countless other manufacturing firms,World War II was an exercise in how to attempt to meet limitless demand for production (as well as forR&D).[5][6] The U.S. government encouraged corporations to build up their physical plant, but the corporations knew that there would be a postwar glut of overcapacity if they did so. In many cases a compromise was reached in which the government paid partially or fully for the expansions in the form of tax breaks and accelerated depreciation.[2]
United Aircraft ranked sixth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[7] At the close of the war,jet engines andhelicopters were both big new things whose coming growth many companies hoped to get in on. United Aircraft entered both industries, via Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, respectively.[2]
Pratt & Whitney feared the head start that Rolls-Royce and General Electric would have in jets, based on their jet programs during the war and the late 1940s. But its jet team, led byLeonard S. Hobbs, successfully developed thePratt & Whitney J57, which, being the most powerful jet engine on the market for some years, brought Pratt & Whitney profitability in the jet field.[2]
Vought wasspun off as an independent business in 1954. Rentschler died two years later.
The 1960s brought new challenges, from more complex technology and bigger, more expensive aircraft to more mature markets with stiffer competition from GE, Rolls-Royce, andSNECMA.[2] The competitions for the requested aircraft that would become theLockheed C-5 Galaxy and theBoeing 747 were some of the financially riskier episodes.[2] Pratt & Whitney ended up building the engines for the 747, producing thePratt & Whitney JT9D, but the program was rocky. For several years Boeing and Pratt & Whitney struggled with an aircraft that was too heavy and underpowered.[2] Eventually, after a lot of continued development work, the 747 redeemed itself.
On the military side of the business, the TFX joint-procurement program led to theGeneral Dynamics F-111 Aardvark powered by thePratt & Whitney TF30.[2]
UAC acquiredChesapeake and Ohio Railway designedUAC TurboTrain to compete in the DOT's Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project. Two trainsets were built in 1967-1968 byPullman for use byPenn Central Transportation Company and laterAmtrak for service from 1968 to 1980. Five seven car sets were built byMLW forCanadian National Railway
In the 1970s the jet engine manufacturers found that their products for the commercial (airline) market had beencommoditized to a greater extent than in previous decades.[8] Leaving behind a tradition of mating airframes to particular engines (which linked the profitability of an airframe model to that of its exclusive engine supplier), the airframe builders began offering multiple brands of engines.[8][9] Producers had to compete on service, warranties, and eventually even by buying entire aircraft and then leasing them to the airlines.[8]
In 1974,Harry Jack Gray leftLitton Industries to become the CEO of United Aircraft.[2] He pursued a strategy of growth and diversification, changing the parent corporation's name toUnited Technologies Corporation (UTC) in 1975 to reflect the intent to diversify into numeroushigh tech fields beyond aerospace.[10]