Happy 95th Anniversary, Solar Turbines!

On November 13, 1927, George Henry Prudden, Jr., an American aircraft engineer, invested $60,000 to start Prudden-San Diego Airplane Company. The company focused on building manifolds and aircraft components and later rebranded as Solar Aircraft Company in July 1936.

After decades of manufacturing various products through World War II and the cold war era, the company began focusing on gas turbines before being purchased by Caterpillar in May 1981, and has since been known as Solar Turbines.

In the company’s 95 years of history, it has grown to more than 9,000 employees around the world, and continues to demonstrate its ability to innovate and power the future. Solar Turbines manufactures the world’s most widely used family of mid-sized industrial gas turbines, ranging from 1 to 39 megawatts. More than 16,000 Solar units are installed in more than 100 countries with more than 3 billion operating hours. 

To learn more about our history, click here.