Revenues and Operating Earnings by Reportable Segment (Detail) (USD $) In Millions	3 Months Ended				9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2011		Sep. 30, 2010		Sep. 30, 2011		Sep. 30, 2010
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Revenues	$ 636.0		$ 495.0		$ 1,845.1		$ 1,442.4
Operating earnings	112.1		83.4		318.9		234.2
Interest expense	26.2		21.5		78.4		62.2
Debt prepayment costs							2.5
Earnings before income taxes	85.9		61.9		240.5		169.5
Commercial aircraft
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Revenues	333.1		250.2		951.9		716.7
Operating earnings	56.6	[1]	38.7	[1]	157.8	[1]	109.1	[1]
Consumables management
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Revenues	238.7		193.1		709.4		572.3
Operating earnings	47.6	[1]	40.5	[1]	140.5	[1]	115.5	[1]
Business jet
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Revenues	64.2		51.7		183.8		153.4
Operating earnings	$ 7.9	[1]	$ 4.2	[1]	$ 20.6	[1]	$ 9.6	[1]

[1] Operating earnings include an allocation of corporate IT costs, employee benefits and selling, general and administrative costs based on the proportion of each segment's systems users, number of employees and sales.