Donor Profile

Pratt and Whitney Gift Type: Grant Gift Amount: $100,000 Gift Designation: Pratt and Whitney Hands-on Training

Twelve cadets and two faculty members from the Department of Aeronautics spent five days in Hartford CT at the Pratt &Whitney Military Engines facility in early May. The multi-year partnership, funded by a $100K grant from Pratt & Whitney, allows cadets studying aircraft propulsion design to get first-hand exposure to the design tools, methodology, manufacturing, and testing associated with turbine engine development.  Dr. Aaron Byerley, Class of 1978 and the Aeronautics Department Head remarked "this trip has been a tremendous experience for our propulsion students.  This one week outside the classroom validates and cements everything we have spent learning this semester inside the classroom.  We are grateful for the tremendous support of Pratt & Whitney and the Association of Graduates."    

During this trip the cadets are also given the unique opportunity to brief their own engine designs to the propulsion engineers at Pratt & Whitney.  The veteran engineers were blown away by what they saw.  "One of our hosts commented that our Cadets were displaying the level of understanding of propulsion design that they expect from their own engineers with two years work experience, said Lt Col Keith Boyer, Deputy Head for the Department of Aeronautics.  They were not expecting this level of sophistication from undergraduates."