Aircraft Engines and Engine Parts - Organization and Structure

Organization and Structure

For decades following the end of World War II, military funding supplied much of the research and development money that allowed U.S. manufacturers to continually upgrade their engines. Technical breakthroughs achieved on military projects found their way into commercial engine applications, thus allowing engine manufacturers to achieve substantial profits from commercial engine sales. This arrangement changed significantly after the end of the cold war when the U.S. military budget decreased dramatically. Thus, engine manufacturers were increasingly faced with incorporating the cost of research and development spending into the price of their engines.

The leading American aircraft engine manufacturers are divisions of larger corporations. For example, Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies, GE Aircraft Engines is a unit of General Electric, and Lycoming is part of Textron. Pratt & Whitney and GE are thought to possess an advantage over their British competitor, Rolls-Royce, because of their corporate support, which allows them to better withstand industry cycles.