Pratt & Whitney bullish on prospects for aerospace business

Pratt & Whitney expects the military and commercial aerospace business to improve, but this would not happen right away,  president of the jet engine manufacturer said on Wednesday.

According to David Hess, president of the subsidiary of United Technologies Corp, who spoke to reporters at the company's annual media day, sales were expected to double, to $24 billion, by the end of the decade.

"This is not some aspirational goal," he said. "This is math."

But the East Hartford, Connecticut, company would first need to get through a few years in the short-term with the military shifting to new fighter jets requiring different engines, he said.

"We just have to navigate through a couple of transitional years here in the business," Hess said.

High fuel costs coupled with the weak economic recovery are pressuring airlines and military spending cuts are biting into sales of defence contractors.