AVIATION: Mr. Horsepower

To the U.S. aircraft industry, Frederick Brant Rentschler was “Mr. Horsepower.” His entire life was devoted to one consuming passion: making bigger, better, more powerful airplane engines to help give the U.S. an Air Force and commercial fleet second to none. In the pursuit Fred Rentschler built United Aircraft Corp. into one of the world’s biggest producers of engines (Pratt & Whitney) as well as propellers (Hamilton Standard) and helicopters (Sikorsky). Cool and shrewd, with a mind that ticked with the same precision as his beloved engines, he was never afraid to be called wrong if he thought he was right.

In the early days after World War I, when most airmen agreed that the skies belonged to liquid-cooled plane engines, Fred Rentschler said flatly that the future lay in air-cooled engines. He helped start Wright Aeronautical Corp., went on to found Pratt & Whitney, whose lightweight, air-cooled Wasp engine was the first big U.S. advance, brought the air age roaring in. To meet its requirements, Rentschler’s United Aircraft put together United Airlines as the first coast-to-coast carrier, pioneering a new era of transportation. The Government made Rentschler give up his airline, but nothing could stop him from turning into the greatest airplane-engine builder. In World War II his United Aircraft Corp. made 363,610 Pratt & Whitney engines, nearly 50% of the total U.S. aircraft horsepower. By concentrating on piston engines to help win the war, P & W had to cut itself off from experience in the newer jet-power plants. Thus most competitors were far ahead of United. But “when the jet age really arrives,” said Rentschler calmly, “we will be ready.”

Ready he was. His driving genius won back the lead for United and the U.S. with Pratt & Whitney’s burly J57 engine (more than 10,000 lbs. of thrust); it currently powers Air Force and Navy planes from supersonic Century fighters to B-52 bombers, is one of the big reasons why Douglas’ DC-8 and Boeing’s 707 transports are sewing up the commercial jet market. Several months ago Fred Rentschler’s health began to fail. Last week, at 68, he died at his Boca Raton, Fla. home. Almost until the end, United’s Board Chairman kept his hand on the throttle, not wishing to lose a single day. No one understood better the mission of his company and the stakes it played for in the constant race to make the U.S. supreme in the air. Said Rentschler: “There is no such thing as a second-best Air Force. There is the best—or nothing.”