In the beginning of jet technology, there were only military engines. Then there were military engines with changes made to fit them to the needs of commercial aviation.

In 1950, a GE corporate committee headed by Jack Parker gazed into its crystal ball to study the future of the aircraft engine business. Parker had started his career as the head of the small engine business in Lynn and was in charge of all of GE's high technology businesses at the time. He and his committee recommended three courses of action: develop a new high-performance fighter engine, begin the further development of small gas turbine aircraft engines, and pursue the civil aviation market as well as the military.

Design work began on the J79 engine in 1952. This was to be an immensely successful high-performance military engine, and we would eventually produce more than 13,500 of them ourselves with another 3400 produced under license. At about the same time, Parker hired John Montgomery to head the Production Engine Department. Montgomery was a retired air force major general and had been running American Airlines' maintenance and engineering base in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Between 1952 and 1955, Parker, Montgomery, and Neil Burgess, the head of the J79 program, visited all of the major airlines in the United States and Europe to lay the groundwork for GE's entry into the commercial engine business.

This was still the era of piston engines, and the major players were Curtiss-...