Pratt & Whitney Hall of Fame

Fredrick Rentschler was the founder and  the first president of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.  He was born in Hamilton, Ohio where his family owned a tool making company.  After graduating from Princeton, he returned to the family business and learned the machinist's trade. Rentschler began his career in aviation during WWI , as an Army officer  overseeing the production of engines being built by Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation. Following the war, Rentschler helped to organize the Wright aeronautical Corporation in Patterson, New Jersey and became its president. In 1924, he left Wright Aeronautical with the dream of establishing his own company to make the most reliable aircraft engine in the industry and the rest is history. 

Andy Willgoos was a founding member and head engine designer of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.   

After World War I, Willgoos joined Rentschler and Mead at Wright Aeronautical Corporation in Patterson, N.J., where he was named chief designing engineer. In July 1925, he resigned from Wright, and he and mead set to work designing a radial engine in an improvised drafting room in Willgoos' garage. While the pair was designing the engine that would be the Wasp, Rentschler was in Hartford setting up Pratt & Whitney.  

After the success of the Wasp, Willgoos went on to design the Twin Wasp, the Wasp Junior, and the Hornet engines. 

George Mead was a founding member and the first vice president of Engineering at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. 

 In 1925 when Rentschler established Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, mead resigned form Wright and went with the new company as vice-president in charge of engineering. While Rentschler was organizing the company during the summer of 1925, mead and Willgoos began work designing an air-cooled radial engine that would become the Wasp. When Pratt & Whitney became part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1929, Mead became Vice-President, and a member of the Executive board and Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee. He later served as Vice President of United Aircraft Corporation and was the Chief Engineer. ​ 

Jack Borrup was a founding member and the first shop superintendent of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft operations. 

Borrup was also working for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation of Paterson, N. J., when he was asked to join new venture to build air‐cooled aircraft engines of a radical new design. He was known as a "crusty shop guy" and “one of the 'gosh darnedest' best superintendents that ever wore overalls". Many stories abound about shop superintendent Jack Borrup and his high-pitched lectures, often punctuated with strong Anglo-Saxon epithets. 

Don Brown was a founding member and first factory floor manager. When Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company was formed in 1925, Don joined to become one of the original executives of the new engine manufacturing companies in the U.S. Mr. Brown was so extremely efficient at his job, he went from Factory Floor Manager to being elected Vice President of the company and later President. He was later elected to be Vice President and Director of the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation in 1932. With the formation of the United Aircraft Corporation in 1934, Mr. Brown was elected its president. The UAC and its subsidiary, the United Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation of which he was also President, are the parent companies of Pratt & Whitney, Chance Vought Aircraft, Sikorsky Aircraft and Hamilton Standard Propellers.​

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