The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History (Library of Flight) [Hardcover]

J. Connors (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1600867111 | ISBN-13: 978-1600867118 | Publication Date: December 1, 2009

"The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History" describes the evolution from piston engines to gas turbines by the engineers who created those engines. Included are hundreds of archival photographs, as well as over a dozen tables listing specifications and applications. The story starts with the founding of the company in the 1920s to provide reliable air-cooled piston engines to the military and to help create coast-to-coast commercial flight service. Pratt & Whitney quickly dominated commercial and military flight in the 1930s, ultimately providing half the horsepower of American engines during World War II. Jack Connors explains how Pratt & Whitney came from behind the competition in 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, and F-102) and the Navy A-3D, F-4D, and F-8 airplanes. Also covered is the development of the J58, which powered the Mach 3+ YF-12 and SR-71 aircraft and subsequent military engines; the F100 in the F-15 and F-16; the F119 in the F-22; and, the F135 in the F-35 series. Pratt & Whitney's contribution to the luxury commercial jet era travel is also detailed, with its JT3, JT3D, JT4, JT8D, JT9D, PW2000, PW4000, and PW6000 in Boeing, Douglas, and Airbus aircraft. This history of Pratt & Whitney's role in the evolution of aircraft engines from 1925 to the present day offers young engineers a wealth of insights about design, development, marketing, and product support for commercial and military customers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Connors joined Pratt & Whitney in 1948, following three years in the Army Air Corps in World War II, and his graduation from MIT with an MS in Mechanical Engineering. His 35-year career at P&W included engineering, domestic and international marketing, and program management. He was East Hartford Engineerings representative working with the Air Force in the F100 engine competition to assist P&Ws Florida Research & Development Centers efforts. He was in charge of the marketing campaigns that launched the Boeing 767 at United Air Lines and the Airbus A310 at SwissAir with the JT9D engine. His last assignment was representing P&Ws Commercial Products Division in creating the International Aero Engines collaboration. He retired in 1983 as Vice President of Advanced Engine Programs. Since then, he has been a consultant to P&W and International Aero Engines, and an active volunteer as an engine curator and a fundraiser for the New England Air Museum. The Connecticut Society of Professional Engineers named him the Engineer of the Year Award in 1987 for his volunteer work on acid-rain monitoring in Connecticut. To resurrect the dormant P&W Archives and develop a computer database of its contents, he worked with another volunteer for over seven years, an effort that made it possible to write this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 527 pages
• Publisher: AIAA (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600867111
• ISBN-13: 978-1600867118
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Aviation > Repair & Maintenance

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History, July 31, 2010

By 

Frank Van Haste (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History (Library of Flight) (Hardcover)

There is a soft spot in my heart for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. In the mid-1960's when I embarked on my engineering education the aerospace industry was booming. We were going to the moon! Four years later there was a recession on. Apollo was winding down, Southeast Asia was hot, and job offers were scarce. I went to work for P&WA, assigned to design small bits of turbine engines.

The job lasted ten months; then they allowed as how I could keep coming to work but they couldn't afford to keep paying me. I moved on, soon ending up in the shipbuilding business.

But what I'd seen of engineering as it was practiced at Pratt & Whitney, I'd liked. They were an organization committed to giving the customer a product that was first class in every respect, and they applied leading-edge technology to do it. I learned a few good lessons in my short tenure there.

Now, Jack Connors' new book has provided a context for my experience. Mr. Connors joined P&WA in 1948 as the piston engine era was drawing to a close and he retired as a Vice President in Engineering, in 1983. After retirement, he and a couple of colleagues invested thousands of hours in organizing and indexing the company's engineering archives. That effort provided the source material for this book.

Much of the book is concerned with what Mr. Connors regards as P&WA's four "defining moments":

* The founding of the company (1925)
* The WWII effort (1939-1945)
* The transition to turbine power (1947-1958)
* Winning the F100 engine program (1968-)

The author uses many first hand accounts to bring these "moments" (several of which stretched over years) to life. We learn how and why Frederick Rentschler started the company and how George Mead and Andy Willgoos inspired both the design brilliance of the great radial engines and the incredible industrial effort that saw P&WA engines supply 50% of the installed horsepower in the WWII aircraft fleet.

We learn, in a really suspenseful sequence, how the company started the gas turbine era desperately far behind GE and Westinghouse, and how Luke Hobbs and Perry Pratt led the engineering effort that produced the J-57 engine for Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress - an engine that represented both a "bet the company" program and a quantum advance in turbojet performance.

The J-57 in its commercial guise (as the JT-3) went on to power both the Boeing 707 and the DC-8 (and the rest, as they say, is history).

And, in the usual manner of technical evolution, the J-57 turbojet led to the TF-33 turbofan (power for the C-141 Starlifter), which was scaled down and provided with an afterburner to produce the TF-30 that occupied my time for a year. And the TF-30 (power for, among others, the F-111 and the F-14 Tomcat) was the parent of the F-100 that went into the F-15 and F-16 and led to other advanced engine programs.

While one must respect the author's conclusions, I'd have proposed the development of the JT-9D high-bypass turbofan during the same years that the F100 was evolving, as a much more significant milestone. The JT-9D powered the first Boeing 747's that arguably revolutionized commercial air travel, and its technical "DNA" can be seen in every large airliner turbofan to this day.

Mr. Connors' book provides only an overview (certainly an interesting one) of the piston engine era. It was before his watch, so to speak, and he paints with a broad brush and suggests other references to fill in the details. But his technical history of the first 35 years of the turbine era at Pratt & Whitney is masterful, and for this era, this will be an essential reference.