This case study examines jet engine development from the 1960s through the establishment of IHPTET (Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology program) in the late 1980s and its role in enabling continued U.S. leadership in air-breathing propulsion capabilities. It focuses on science and technology management principles employed during that period, and how they impacted the process by which technologies were introduced. For this case study, the Institute for Defense Analyses researched the documented history of aircraft engine development through the 1980s and interviewed a number of current and retired personnel from both Government (laboratory personnel to officials in the Pentagon) and the large engine companies (GE Aircraft Engines, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and others).