We finished the second quarter with record adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of $1.83, up 205% compared to last year and record adjusted operating margins of 17.6%.
We delivered core sales growth of 19% with a number of strong leading indicators reflected in core order growth of 45% and core backlog growth of 7% compared to last year.
Based on this performance, we are raising our adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations guidance by $0.30 to a range of $5.95 to $6.15, which is effectively our fourth guidance increase so far this year.
The midpoint of the updated guidance at $6.05 is above our prior peak pre-COVID adjusted earnings per share of $6.02 in 2019.
While we expect to exceed that $6.02 prior peak this year, there are some notable differences this year compared to 2019.
In particular, the $6.02 in 2019 included earnings from Engineered Materials, which is now classified as discontinued operations and excluded from our 2021 guidance.
As we have mentioned previously, this is about $0.44 of earnings per share now excluded in discontinued ops.
And thinking about 2022 and beyond, it is worth noting that the commercial side of our Aerospace & Electronics business will still be almost $200 million below 2019 levels this year and a recovery to pre-COVID levels in this business alone would add more than $1 per share to EPS.
At Payment & Merchandising Technologies, the core non-currency business will be slightly more than $200 million below pre-COVID levels, with more than half of that amount in our very high margin core Payment Solutions business.
And as mentioned many times before, we have delivered on margins and free cash flow while maintaining 100% of our investments in strategic growth initiatives throughout the entirety of the pandemic, because of their importance in our ability to sustainably drive long-term, profitable growth.
At our May Aerospace & Electronics investor event, we showed you numerous examples of how we continue to effectively drive above-market growth, expecting 7% to 9% compound average growth over the next 10 years.
At Aerospace & Electronics, sales of $158 million were flat with the prior year.
Adjusted segment margins, however, improved 420 basis points to 19.6%.
In the quarter, total aftermarket sales turned positive, growing 3% after a 29% decline in aftermarket sales last quarter.
Commercial OE sales increased 4% in the quarter after a 32% decline last quarter.
Defense OE sales declined 4% in the quarter and are flat on a year-to-date basis.
More specifically, we are seeing North American airlines bring a substantial number of aircraft back into service to meet expected domestic demand levels, with the in-service fleet now at about 90% of mid-2019 levels.
On the international side, traffic continues to improve, albeit a little more slowly, with substantial room for recovery-further recovery as global ASKs are now a little better than 50% of 2019 levels.
Taken together, and as we explained at our Aerospace Investor Day in May, we expect a long-term overall compound annual growth rate of 7% to 9% through 2030.
Process Flow Technologies sales of $311 million increased 30% driven by a 22% increase in core sales and an 8% benefit from favorable foreign exchange.
Process Flow Technologies operating profit increased by 83% to $49 million.
Adjusted operating margins increased 450 basis points to 15.7%, reflecting the higher volumes, strong execution and benefits from last year's cost actions.
Sequentially, trends improved across the board with FX-neutral backlog up 5% and FX-neutral orders up 8%.
Compared to last year, FX-neutral backlog increased 11% and FX-neutral core orders increased 28%.
And remember that the chemical market is our most important market, where we have the strongest position and the most differentiated offering, and generated more than 35% of sales on the process side of this business.
However, remember that collectively, upstream oil and gas and conventional power are a small part of this business and less than 10% of segment sales.
We now expect high single-digit core sales growth, with approximately 5% of favorable foreign exchange on a full year basis.
At Payment & Merchandising Technologies, sales of $328 million in the quarter increased 31% compared to the prior year driven by 26% core sales growth and a 5% benefit from favorable foreign exchange.
Our Currency business core sales increased in the mid-teens range with the Crane Payment Innovations business inflecting to a positive 34% of core growth, but still well below pre-COVID levels.
Segment operating profit increased 285% to $78 million.
Adjusted operating margins increased 1,500 basis points to 23.7%.
As we explained last quarter, we do expect margins to moderate further over the course of the year given timing and mix, with full year margins likely toward the high-end of our long-term target of 18% to 22%, with core sales growth this year now approaching mid-teens with a 4% favorable foreign exchange benefit.
Turning now to more detail on our total company results and guidance, we had extremely strong cash flow performance in the quarter, generating $141 million in free cash flow compared to $102 million in the second quarter of last year.
Year-to-date, free cash flow was $184 million compared to $62 million last year.
During the second quarter, we also received approximately $9 million from the sale of a property in Arizona following receipt of $15 million last quarter from the sale of another property.
Since 2017, we have received proceeds from real estate and other asset sales made possible by restructuring activities of approximately $56 million, which means that much of our restructuring has been self-funded.
As a reminder, on May 24, we announced that we had signed an agreement to sell our Engineered Materials segment for $360 million.
When the transaction closes, we expect proceeds, net of tax, to be approximately $320 million.
As we discussed in May, we believe we will have approximately $1 billion of M&A capacity by the end of this year.
The adjusted tax rate in the quarter was 18.4%, which included an excess tax benefit of approximately $4 million or $0.07 per share related to stock options exercised during the quarter.
For the full year, we now expect an adjusted tax rate of 20.5% rather than the previous 21% guidance.
As Max explained, we are raising our adjusted earnings per share guidance by $0.30 to a range of $5.95 to $6.15, reflecting the strong second quarter performance and our expectation that end markets and execution will be ahead of where we forecasted them earlier this year.
Remember that our original guidance for 2021 was $4.90 to $5.10, and that guidance included $0.44 of earnings contribution from Engineered Materials.
That means we have effectively raised guidance about $1.50 on an operational basis since the beginning of the year.
Our revised guidance assumes core sales growth of 7% to 9%, which is 200 basis points higher than our prior May 24 guidance.
Favorable foreign exchange is also now expected to contribute 3.5%, up 100 basis points from late May.
Free cash flow guidance was increased to $320 million to $350 million, up $20 million from prior guidance, reflecting higher earnings and slightly lower capex at $70 million.
Corporate expense is now expected to be $80 million, up $3 million compared to prior guidance.

Summary:
We finished the second quarter with record adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of $1.83, up 205% compared to last year and record adjusted operating margins of 17.6%.
Based on this performance, we are raising our adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations guidance by $0.30 to a range of $5.95 to $6.15, which is effectively our fourth guidance increase so far this year.
The midpoint of the updated guidance at $6.05 is above our prior peak pre-COVID adjusted earnings per share of $6.02 in 2019.
At our May Aerospace & Electronics investor event, we showed you numerous examples of how we continue to effectively drive above-market growth, expecting 7% to 9% compound average growth over the next 10 years.
Taken together, and as we explained at our Aerospace Investor Day in May, we expect a long-term overall compound annual growth rate of 7% to 9% through 2030.
As Max explained, we are raising our adjusted earnings per share guidance by $0.30 to a range of $5.95 to $6.15, reflecting the strong second quarter performance and our expectation that end markets and execution will be ahead of where we forecasted them earlier this year.
Our revised guidance assumes core sales growth of 7% to 9%, which is 200 basis points higher than our prior May 24 guidance.