Pratt & Whitney military jet engine design defect lawsuit (1992)

Used to establish the 1992 Supreme Court ruling that the government, not the manufacturer, owns design liability for military hardware. Sets up the V-22 case that follows.

Going to Congress — actually not the Congress, the Supreme Court — decided that military technology is cutting edge, and so there's always a hazard and you cannot sue the manufacturer for a design defect, because the military is considered to be the designer of every piece of military hardware. I can't remember what they call this principle. But in 1992 the Supreme Court ruled that you can't sue Pratt and Whitney for an engine design defect. You can sue them for a manufacturing defect, but you can't sue them for a design defect, because NAVAIR or the Air Force had huge design teams of all these PhD scientists who worked for the government, and Pratt and Whitney would come in and give a presentation — or Boeing if it's an aircraft airframe — and the government would approve it. So therefore the government approved the design, and you can't sue the government. When you signed up, you sign up for hazardous duty, right?