Frederick Brant Rentschler (November 8, 1887 – April 25, 1956) was an American aircraft engine designer, aviation engineer, industrialist, and the founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Rentschler created and manufactured many revolutionary aircraft engines, including those used in the aircraft of Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and James Doolittle. He is also a co-founder of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, the predecessor of United Technologies Corporation. Early life Rentschler was born on November 8, 1887, in Hamilton, Ohio, to German-Americans George A. Rentschler and Phoebe Schwab, whose family owned the Republic Motor Car Co. that built Republic cars from 1910 until 1916. They were also principals in Hooven-Owens-Rentschler, and his brother Gordon S. Rentschler would become Chairman of National City Bank. The family resided in the Rentschler House, which has since been named a historic site. He graduated from Princeton University in 1909 and worked in his family's businesses as a molder and machinist. When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, he joined the United States Army. As a First Lieutenant and later Captain, he was assigned to inspect Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines manufactured under French license at the Wright-Martin plant in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The armistice of November 11, 1918, ended the contract and caused the reorganization of Wright-Martin. Aviator and engineer Rentschler left the Army convinced that future aircraft would require lighter-weight engines with much greater power and higher reliability. His proposed design of an air-cooled engine flew in the face of conventional wisdom, which held that heavier liquid-cooled engines would power the future of aviation. Rentschler became president of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and pressed for research into his idea. Unable to convince his board of directors, largely composed of investment bankers with little aviation knowledge, he resigned in 1924, and supported by old friend and Wright chief engineer George J. Mead, he developed a proposal for a high-powered air-cooled aircraft engine for the U.S. Navy. Admiral William A. Moffett promised to approve the purchase of such an engine. Corporate executive Rentschler approached the Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool Company of Hartford, Connecticut, with his idea. On July 23, 1925, they agreed to fund its development, creating the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company in which Rentschler and Mead had a controlling position. Pratt & Whitney Aircraft's first engine, completed on Christmas Eve 1925, was named the Wasp by Faye Belden Rentschler, whom Frederick had married