The rocket motor division of East Hartford jet-engine builder Pratt & Whitney Co. is among seven nominees for the aerospace industry’s coveted Robert J. Collier Trophy.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in California is part of the team that powered the Air Force’s experimental hypersonic X-51A WaveRider vehicle last May to the longest-ever flight by a supersonic combustion ramjet.
Winners will be announced March 15 at the annual National Aeronautics Association’s spring awards luncheon.
If Pratt were to win, it would be the second Collier Trophy win in a year for a division of United Technologies Corp. in Hartford.
Last spring, UTC’s Hamilton Sundstrand division in Windsor Locks and its space-development partners took home the 100-year-old award for their work on the International Space Station.
