United Technologies

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Contents

Introduction

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) (NYSE: UTX) is an American multinational conglomerate based in Hartford, Connecticut. It researches, develops, and manufactures high-technology products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, helicopters, heating and cooling, fuel cells, elevators and escalators, fire and security, building systems, and industrial products, among others.

History

The core group of United Technologies companies was founded in 1929 as United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, by the merger of the Boeing Airplane Company, Boeing Air Transport, Chance Vought, Hamilton Standard, Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky Aircraft. As a result of the Air Mail Act in 1934, United Aircraft and Transport broke up into three independent companies: Boeing, United Aircraft, and United Airlines. Vought was spun off as an independent business in 1954, but otherwise, United Aircraft maintained its original corporate structure and concentration in the aerospace and defence industries well into the 1970s.

United Aircraft changed its name to United Technologies on May 1, 1975, and the next year acquired Otis Elevator. In 1979, Carrier Refrigeration and Mostek were acquired; Mostek was sold in 1985 to the French electronics company Thomson. United Technologies acquired Sundstrand Corporation in 1999, and merged it into UTC's [[Hamilton Standard] unit to form Hamilton Sundstrand. Two years later, UTC entered the fire and security business by purchasing Chubb Security, which was followed in 2005 by Kidde.

Subsidiaries

Pratt & Whitney Canada

The Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company, Ltd. was founded in November 1928 to act as a service centre for Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines. Although PWC is a division of Pratt & Whitney, it has its own research, development and marketing as well as the manufacturing of its engines. Since the development of its famous PT6 turboprop engine in the 1960s, Pratt & Whitney Canada has dominated its sector of the world market for aircraft engines.

Hamilton Standard

Hamilton Standard, a famous aircraft propeller parts supplier, was formed in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation. Other members of the corporation included Boeing, United Airlines, Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney. At the time, Hamilton was the largest manufacturer of aircraft propellers in the world.

Sunstrand

Sunstrand aerospace products include electric power generation and distribution systems; fuel and special fluid pumps; engine control systems; gearboxes; primary and secondary flight controls and actuation systems; ram air turbine emergency systems; auxiliary power units; environmental control systems; LED lighting; propeller systems; fire protection products for military vehicles and civilian and military aircraft. In 1999, Hamilton Standard merged with Sundstrand Corporation to become Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of United Technologies Corporation. Hamilton Sundstrand continues to provide aerospace components and systems to most of the world's aircraft manufacturers, including Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Embraer.

Sikorsky

Sikorsky was founded in 1925 by aircraft engineer Igor Sikorsky, a Kiev-born American immigrant. The company, named "Sikorsky Manufacturing Company", began aircraft production in Roosevelt, New York that year. In 1929 the company moved to Stratford, Connecticut. It became a part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) in July of that year. Igor Sikorsky developed the first stable, single-rotor, fully-controllable helicopter to enter large full-scale production in 1942, upon which the majority of subsequent helicopters were based (though he did not invent the helicopter itself). Sikorsky Aircraft remains one of the leading helicopter manufacturers. Well known product include:

Pratt & Whitney

Pratt & Whitney is an American aircraft engine manufacturer of products widely used in both civil and military aircraft. As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers, it competes with General Electric and Rolls-Royce, although it has also formed joint ventures with both of these companies. In addition to aircraft engines, Pratt & Whitney manufactures gas turbines for industrial and power generation, marine turbines, and rocket engines. Well known products are:

Rocketdyne

The company was formed by North American Aviation. In 1967, NAA and Rocketdyne merged with the Rockwell Corporation to form North American Rockwell, later part of Rockwell International. Decades later, in December 1996, the aerospace entities of Rockwell International were bought by Boeing. In February 2005, Boeing reached an agreement to sell what was by then referred to as Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power to Pratt & Whitney. The transaction was completed on August 2, 2005. Rocketdyne was formed by NAA in the immediate post-WW II era to study the German V-2 missile and adapt its engine to SAE measurements and US construction details. Rocketdyne also used the same general concept of separate burner/injectors from the V-2 engine design to build a much larger engine for the Navaho missile project. This work was considered unimportant in the 1940s and funded at a very low level, but the opening of the Korean War in 1950 changed priorities. Navaho ran into continual difficulties and was cancelled in the late 1950s when Redstone missile design (essentially a much larger V-2) had caught up in development. However the Rocketdyne engine, known as the A-5 or NAA75-110 proved to be considerably more reliable than the one developed for Redstone, so the missile was redesigned with the A-5 even though the resulting missile had much shorter range. As the missile entered production, NAA spun off Rocketdyne in 1955 as a separate division.

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