Variable Interest Entities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Current assets	$ 28,548	$ 26,706
Current liabilities	$ 22,541	22,618
IAE International Aero Engines AG
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Variable Interest Entity, Methodology for Determining Whether Entity is Primary Beneficiary	Pratt & Whitney holds a 61% net collaboration interest in IAE International Aero Engines AG (IAE), and a 49.5% ownership interest in IAE. IAE's business purpose is to coordinate the design, development, manufacturing and product support of the V2500 jet engine program through involvement with the collaborators. IAE retains limited equity with the primary economics of the V2500 program passed to the participants in the separate collaboration arrangement. As such, we have determined that IAE is a variable interest entity with Pratt & Whitney its primary beneficiary, and IAE has, therefore, been consolidated
Variable Interest Entity, Qualitative or Quantitative Information, Ownership Percentage	49.50%
Current assets	$ 2,410	1,920
Noncurrent assets	1,160	1,102
Total assets	3,570	3,022
Current liabilities	2,222	1,931
Noncurrent liabilities	1,460	1,355
Total liabilities	$ 3,682	$ 3,286