RTXRTX Corporation

RTX is a defence contractor and maker of aircraft engines and systems, living on government contracts and aviation aftermarket.

The company was formed by the merger of Raytheon and United Technologies and has three parts: Pratt & Whitney engines, Collins Aerospace systems, and defence — missiles, air defence and radar. The first two depend on commercial aviation, the third on defence budgets.

The defence half provides predictability: contracts run for years, the customer is government, and demand follows geopolitics rather than the economic cycle. The commercial half works on the same logic as other engine makers: most income comes from servicing the installed base rather than from the initial sale.

A specific risk is technical: a defect found in a batch of engines required mass recall and inspection, costing the company large unplanned expenses and grounding customer aircraft. RTX pays a dividend and sits among the defence names that rise with geopolitical tension.