Segment Information (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended
Apr. 04, 2015 segment	Mar. 29, 2014
Operating and reportable business segments
Number of business operating segments	5us-gaap_NumberOfOperatingSegments
Number of reportable business segments	5us-gaap_NumberOfReportableSegments
REVENUES
Manufacturing revenues	$ 3,051us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet	$ 2,818us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet
Finance revenues	22us-gaap_FinancialServicesRevenue	29us-gaap_FinancialServicesRevenue
Total revenues	3,073us-gaap_Revenues	2,847us-gaap_Revenues
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	259	219
Corporate expenses and other, net	(42)txt_CorporateExpensesAndOtherNet	(43)txt_CorporateExpensesAndOtherNet
Interest expense, net for Manufacturing group	(33)us-gaap_InterestIncomeExpenseNet	(35)us-gaap_InterestIncomeExpenseNet
Acquisition and restructuring costs		(16)txt_AcquisitionAndRestructuringCosts
Income from continuing operations before income taxes	184	125
Textron Aviation \| Manufacturing group
REVENUES
Manufacturing revenues	1,051	785
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	67	14
Bell \| Manufacturing group
REVENUES
Manufacturing revenues	813	873
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	76	96
Textron Systems \| Manufacturing group
REVENUES
Manufacturing revenues	315	363
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	28	39
Industrial \| Manufacturing group
REVENUES
Manufacturing revenues	872	797
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	82	66
Finance
REVENUES
Finance revenues	22	29
SEGMENT PROFIT
Segment profit	$ 6	$ 4

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Corporate expenses and other, net.

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Operating profit for all operating segments before income taxes.

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The aggregate financial services revenue and operating interest income earned during the reporting period.

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-Publisher FASB

-Name Accounting Standards Codification

-Topic 225

-SubTopic 10

-Section S99

-Paragraph 2

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Sum of operating profit and nonoperating income or expense before Income or Loss from equity method investments, income taxes, extraordinary items, and noncontrolling interest.

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The net amount of operating interest income (expense).

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Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

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Number of segments reported by the entity. A reportable segment is a component of an entity for which there is an accounting requirement to report separate financial information on that component in the entity's financial statements.

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Amount of revenue recognized from goods sold, services rendered, insurance premiums, or other activities that constitute an earning process. Includes, but is not limited to, investment and interest income before deduction of interest expense when recognized as a component of revenue, and sales and trading gain (loss).

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Total revenue from sale of goods and services rendered during the reporting period, in the normal course of business, reduced by sales returns and allowances, and sales discounts.

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