Factories

Painting the cylinders of aircraft motors at the Pratt and Whitney Plane. East Hartford, Connecticut.jpg

By 1940, Pratt & Whitney’s engines were at the forefront of technology; the company’s largest engine, the Twin Wasp, produced 1,200 horsepower. With an assembly line modeled on those of Detroit, the engine facility at East Hartford, built in 1930, was designed for high-volume output--a feature that let the company expand quickly once President Franklin Roosevelt moved the country on a wartime footing. American aircraft manufacturers were called on to produce 50,000 aircraft a year for the military. By 1943, Pratt & Whitney had expanded from 3,000 employees to 40,000. Pratt & Whitney engines helped to win World War II by powering much of the U.S. fighter fleet as well as many British planes. 

8a34597v.jpg

In 1927, the Farrel Foundry merged with the Birmingham Iron Foundry of Derby, Connecticut. During the 1920s, Farrel-Birmingham began creating gears for use in US Navy propulsion systems.