RTX Corporation
Aerospace & DefenseFounded 2020- Updated June 2026
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: June 2026
CorpDigest
RTX Corporation
Company History
Founded 2020 in Arlington, Virginia
Last reviewed: 2026-06-03 · By Swet Parvadiya
Raytheon was founded in Cambridge in 1922 by a group that included Laurence Marshall, who had built a business in gas-filled rectifier tubes. The company's early identity was entirely about electronic components. The radar work during World War II defined both the company's technological capability and its customer relationship with the US military — a relationship that has never been severed and that makes Raytheon one of the oldest continuously operating defense contractors in American history.
The candy bar anecdote — Percy Spencer, a Raytheon engineer, noticed his chocolate bar melted in front of an active radar magnetron in 1945 and followed the observation to the invention of the microwave oven — has become embedded in corporate mythology. The Patriot air defense system's performance during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 was the public demonstration of Raytheon's technical capability that established its modern brand identity beyond specialist defense circles.
Pratt & Whitney, founded in 1925 and eventually part of United Technologies Corporation, built the jet engines that powered the Cold War arms race on both commercial and military fronts. The $30 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins by UTC in 2018 — one of the largest defense industry deals in history — created the avionics foundation that became Collins Aerospace after the Raytheon merger. The 2020 RTX merger combined these histories into a single entity that spans the complete aerospace and defense supply chain from engine design to missile guidance to cabin electronics.
Laurence K. Marshall co-founded what would become Raytheon Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1922. Born in 1889, Marshall was an engineer and entrepreneur who initially pursued commercial refrigeration technology before recognizing the superior commercial opportunity in radio tubes. His partnership with Vannevar Bush — who would later organize all U.S. Scientific research during World War II as head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development — gave Raytheon an early connection to the highest levels of American science and technology policy. Marshall guided Raytheon through its critical early years, renaming the company Raytheon (from the Greek phrase for 'light from the gods') in 1925 and overseeing the transition to microwave radar component manufacturing during World War II that established the company's foundational engineering identity. Marshall remained associated with the company through the 1940s before stepping back from active management.
Frederick Rentschler founded Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company in 1925 after leaving Wright Aeronautical, where he had developed a reputation as one of America's most gifted aircraft engine designers. Recognizing that the U.S. Military needed a new generation of high-powered, lightweight aircraft engines, Rentschler designed the Wasp engine — a 400-horsepower air-cooled radial that represented a quantum leap in power-to-weight ratio over existing designs. The Wasp was immediately adopted by the U.S. Navy, and Rentschler quickly followed it with the Hornet engine, which produced 525 horsepower. By 1929, Pratt & Whitney engines powered Charles Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius, the U.S. Navy's primary fighter aircraft, and the world's fastest aircraft. Rentschler's commercial instincts were as sharp as his engineering talent — he recognized early that military contracts alone would not sustain the business and worked aggressively to develop relationships with commercial aviation pioneers. His foundational work established the engineering culture and customer relationships that made Pratt & Whitney the dominant U.S. Aircraft engine manufacturer for the first five decades of commercial aviation.
Laurence Marshall, Vannevar Bush, and Charles G. Smith co-found the American Appliance Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company renames itself Raytheon in 1925 after developing a successful rectifying radio tube.
Frederick Rentschler establishes Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company in Hartford, Connecticut, and develops the Wasp radial engine, which the U.S. Navy immediately adopts, establishing Pratt & Whitney as a premier military aircraft engine supplier.
Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer accidentally discovers that radar magnetron tubes can heat food when he notices a chocolate bar melting near an operating radar. Raytheon patents the microwave oven in 1946, filing U.S. Patent 2,495,429.
Raytheon's Patriot surface-to-air missile system is deployed in Saudi Arabia and Israel during Operation Desert Storm to intercept Iraqi Scud ballistic missiles. The deployment — though intercept effectiveness was later disputed — transforms Raytheon into the world's most recognized name in missile defense.
United Technologies Corporation completes its acquisition of Rockwell Collins for approximately $30 billion, creating Collins Aerospace and positioning UTC as the world's largest aerospace systems supplier. The deal was the largest aerospace acquisition in history at the time.
United Technologies Corporation and Raytheon Company announce an all-stock merger of equals valued at approximately $121 billion that will create RTX Corporation, combining UTC's commercial aerospace businesses with Raytheon's defense electronics and missile portfolio.
The merger of UTC and Raytheon closes on April 3, 2020. RTX Corporation simultaneously spins off Carrier Global Corporation and Otis Worldwide Corporation, completing the transformation into a focused aerospace and defense company. The merger closes at the worst possible moment commercially, as COVID-19 has grounded global commercial aviation.
Pratt & Whitney's Geared Turbofan engine backlog surpasses 10,000 engines as commercial aviation recovery drives accelerated narrowbody fleet renewal orders from airlines globally. The A320neo family, powered by either the GTF or CFM LEAP, becomes the world's fastest-selling commercial aircraft.
RTX discloses in September 2023 that a powder metal contamination defect in certain GTF engine components requires accelerated inspection of more than 1,200 engines, triggering a $3 billion pre-tax charge in Q3 2023 and causing significant airline operational disruptions globally.
Christopher Calio, a 25-year company veteran and former President of Pratt & Whitney, succeeds Greg Hayes as CEO of RTX Corporation in May 2023. Calio inherits both record defense demand and the most significant product quality crisis in the company's recent history.
RTX reports a record $221 billion order backlog as of year-end 2024, encompassing both defense contracts for Patriot, AMRAAM, and radar systems and commercial aviation contracts for GTF engines and Collins Aerospace systems. The backlog represents approximately 2.7 years of annual revenue coverage.
RTX reports fiscal year 2024 revenues of approximately $80.7 billion, representing approximately 8 percent organic growth over 2023, driven by Raytheon defense demand, Collins Aerospace commercial aftermarket growth, and recovering Pratt & Whitney production volumes.
United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins to create Collins Aerospace, combining UTC Aerospace Systems' broad defense and commercial systems portfolio with Rockwell Collins' market-leading avionics and cabin management systems. The acquisition was designed to create the world's largest aerospace systems supplier with scale advantages in research, development, and manufacturing that neither company could achieve independently. The deal gave UTC dominant positions across the full spectrum of commercial aircraft systems — from the cockpit to the cabin — and significantly deepened its defense electronics portfolio.
The all-stock merger of United Technologies Corporation and Raytheon Company — announced in June 2019 and closed in April 2020 — was designed to create an aerospace and defense company with unprecedented breadth, combining UTC's commercial aviation franchise with Raytheon's defense electronics and missile leadership. The merger was premised on the thesis that the dual commercial-defense business model would provide natural revenue balance — when commercial aviation contracted, defense would sustain earnings, and vice versa. CEO Greg Hayes argued that the combined entity would have unmatched R&D investment capacity to compete in next-generation defense technologies.
Raytheon Company's 1995 acquisition of E-Systems — a Dallas-based defense electronics and intelligence systems specialist — was a foundational step in Raytheon's 1990s transformation from a component manufacturer to a defense systems integrator. E-Systems brought critical classified intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, including modification of large aircraft for special missions, secure communications systems, and ground processing systems for intelligence data. The acquisition gave Raytheon critical relationships with intelligence community customers that it had not previously cultivated.
Raytheon's 1997 acquisition of Texas Instruments' Defense Systems and Electronics Group brought critical precision-guided munitions technology — specifically the Paveway laser-guided bomb family and the Sensor Fuzed Weapon — that dramatically expanded Raytheon's air-delivered weapons portfolio. The acquisition was motivated by the convergence of radar and precision guidance technologies, which TI's defense group had pioneered, and Raytheon's existing strengths in radar and air defense. The deal also brought the HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) program, which attacks enemy radar systems.