Jet Engine Maker Sees Business BoomingApril 15, 2011
 After several rough years, jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney is seeing its business take off. The United Technologies subsidiary announced a group of major deals over the past few months, including an order for 300 next-generation engines from the Indian airliner IndiGo; 30 engines from German airline company Lufthansa and another 60 engines for Airbus planes bought by International Lease Finance Corporation, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "The backlog keeps getting bigger," Pratt & Whitney President David Hess said last month. The company also received a huge boost from Congress last month when it voted to halt the development and production of an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, making Pratt & Whitney the only engine maker for the next generation jet fighter. With billions at stake, Boeing and Rolls-Royce — the partners developing the alternate engine — continue to contest that decision. Pratt & Whitney was handed another boost when the U.S. Air Force awarded it a $35 billion contract to Boeing to build aerial refueling tankers. That deal will benefit engine maker Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney has come a long way from just a few years ago when the company announced plans to move to Singapore and Japan because of the entrenched downturn in the aerospace industry. The company has spent $1 billion over 20 years to develop a geared turbofan jet engine that it says produces less carbon emissions, slashes fuel costs and generates less noise. The company has "hung the future" on its product, Matt Collins, an analyst at Edward Jones, told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "They've proven they can win the orders for the geared turbofan and now they need to deliver." |
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