The U.S. Air Force is getting serious about developing a so-called adaptive engine for its current and future fighter jets and is now putting the money where its mouth is. Five giants in the industry were recently awarded contracts worth a whopping $4.9 billion. General Electric, Pratt &Whitney, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman were awarded contracts worth around $975 million each for the prototype phase of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion Program. Until now, only GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney were developing engines as part of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) with the goal of eventually producing...