GE Beaten for Biggest Share of Jet Engine Business : Air Force Pacts Favor Pratt & Whitney

The Pratt & Whitney Division of United Technologies Corp. on Monday won the largest share of the Air Force’s fiscal 1990 jet engine business, beating out the General Electric Co. for the third straight year.

The Air Force, in a brief announcement, said Pratt & Whitney will be asked to build 64% of the basic jet engines now used in its fighters during the year starting next Oct. 1, with GE producing the remaining 36%.

The service said it plans to acquire 109 of those engines during fiscal 1990. The 64-36 split would give Pratt & Whitney 70 of those engines and GE 39.

And in another major coup for Pratt & Whitney, the Air Force said it will split its first buy of new “increased performance” engines for the 1990s by a 56%-44% margin in favor of Pratt.

Current plans call for the purchase of 122 of the more powerful engines in fiscal 1990. Sixty-eight of them will be purchased from Pratt & Whitney, and the remaining 54 will come from GE, the Air Force said.

All told, Pratt & Whitney will build 138 basic and increased-performance engines in fiscal 1990, while GE will build 93 of its basic and increased-performance engines.

The Air Force said it will soon award the final contracts for basic engines being purchased in fiscal 1990. Until that happens, however, the service declined to estimate their values.

Pratt & Whitney Had Monopoly

The contracts for the increased-performance engines, though, were awarded Monday. They total $146.4 million to Pratt & Whitney and $126.8 million to General Electric.

The Air Force launched what has been called the “great engine war” in 1983 when it decided to stage annual competitions for the right to supply engines for its two front-line fighters, the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.