This week in history: Pratt & Whitney opens Palm Beach County plant
On May 28, 1958, Pratt & Whitney opened a jet engine development plant on an 11-square-mile campus in northwest Palm Beach County. At the dedication ceremony County Commissioner Roy E. Michael Jr. declared Pratt & Whitney’s arrival “the largest single industrial accomplishment so far in Palm Beach County.”
An undated (but marked as “probably 1960″) Palm Beach Post file photo of a family touring the Pratt & Whitney plant.
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft plant in 1961. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Tags: This Week in History
I was hired for the summer of 1962 while I was studying engineering at the University of Michigan. I worked in Nondestructive Testing and the x-ray facility in the main plant. We x-rayed RL-10 liquid hydrogen rocket engine parts and whole engines as well as turbine blades for the fighter jet turbine engines being developed there. The RL-10 liquid hydrogen engine powered the second stage of the Apollo 3 stage rocket that made it possible for the astronauts to get to the moon and back to Earth. There were three shifts working at the facility with our group working 10 hour shifts during the day then. It was exciting to be a part of the development of jet and rocket engines that made space flight possible and faster jet fighters for the Air Force and Navy. I had been a ninth grade student at Central Junior High School and Palm Beach High School in 1958 when the Russians launched their Sputnik satellite into space. I started to study engineering during the first two years of college but later went into life sciences and chemistry. I have retired from teaching secondary science in the School District of Palm Beach County for over 30 years and am sad to see how the facility on the Beeline Highway that was Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Research and Development has become so much smaller now. I watched the communities of North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, and Jupiter created as housing for the families of employees of Pratt & Whitney, RCA Computers, and supporting businesses. As Cape Canaveral downsized after the end of the Apollo Programs and space flights, so has Pratt & Whitney here in Palm Beach County. Most of the engineering staff has moved back to East Harford, Connecticut where the corporate headquarters for Pratt & Whitney is located. Testing is still done at the local facility along with Sikorsky Helicopter Division.