We delivered sales growth of 17% and generated record quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.57, and this earnings per share represents growth of 22% year-over-year.
Also, our adjusted operating margins expanded 80 basis points year-over-year to 17%, and this was driven by margin expansion in both our Transportation and Communications segments.
I also believe that you're going to continue to see us demonstrate our strong cash generation and truly evident of that is our year-to-date free cash flow, which was approximately $1 billion, which is also a Company record for the first half of the fiscal year.
With that as a little bit of a backdrop, I do want to take a moment to frame out the current market environment and our business relative to where we were just 90 days ago when we last spoke.
In our Transportation segment, consumer demand in autos continues to remain strong, and auto production is remaining stable in the range of 19 million to 20 million units per quarter globally, even with the well-documented semi shortages, and we've also seen further strength in our commercial transportation end markets.
Second quarter sales of $3.7 billion were better than our expectations in each of our segments.
They were up 17% on a reported basis and 11% organically year-over-year.
We had 15% organic growth in our Transportation segment, with double-digit growth across all businesses.
We also had very strong performance in our Communications segment, with organic growth of 29%, which was strong double-digit growth in both of the businesses in that segment.
And in our Industrial segment, sales were down 4% organically due to the ongoing weakness in the commercial aerospace market.
From an orders perspective, second quarter orders were $4.6 billion, and this was up 36% year-over-year.
Our earnings per share was a record at $1.57 in the quarter, and this was up 22% year-over-year and was driven entirely by our operating performance, resulting in adjusted operating margins being up 80 basis points year-over-year.
From a free cash flow perspective, in the second quarter free cash flow was $477 million, with approximately $340 million being returned to shareholders.
For the third quarter, we expect sales to be approximately $3.7 billion, and this is up significantly year-over-year on both a reported and an organic basis, and we expect adjusted earnings per share to be $1.57, which is in line with the levels we just saw in the quarter we just closed.
As I already stated in the quarter, our orders were very strong at approximately $4.6 billion, and we had a book to bill of 1.22.
Orders in transportation and in Communications were up 50% and 45% respectively.
But what is nice is that despite the year-over-year sales decline we had in this segment, we have seen orders growth of 7%, and that's driven by the continued recovery in the industrial equipment market, partially offset by the weakness in commercial aerospace segment.
In China, our orders were up 3% from a strong base from fiscal quarter one.
Orders on a sequential basis in Europe were up 14%, and North America sequential orders were up 22%, and that was broad based growth across all our segments than those two regions.
So let me get into our year-over-year segment results and there are slides 5 through 7.
Transportation sales were up 15% organically year-over-year, with growth in each of the businesses.
In auto, our sales were up 14% organically.
And year-to-date, we are generating content outperformance over production in our expected 4% to 6% range.
In commercial transportation, similar to our first quarter, we saw 25% organic growth, driven by ongoing emission trends, content outperformance and ongoing share gains.
We are continuing to benefit from stricter emission standards and the increased operator adoption of Euro 5 and 6 in China which reinforces our strong position in that country.
In our sensors business, we saw 13% organic growth with growth in all markets and double-digit growth in auto applications.
From a margin perspective, adjusted operating margins for the segment expanded 80 basis points to 18.1%, driven by higher volumes versus the prior year and despite the supply chain pressures.
As I said earlier, our sales declined 4% organically year-over-year.
During the quarter, the segment continued to be impacted by the decline in the commercial aerospace market, with our aerospace, defense and marine business declining 21% organically year-over-year.
And when you think about our industrial equipment market, it was very strong and up 16% organically, with growth in all regions and increasing strength in factory automation applications where we're benefiting from accelerating capital expenditures in areas like semiconductor equipment as well as along the auto manufacturing supply chain.
We continue to see weakness in our medical business in our Industrial segment, and it was down 13% organically year-over-year, and this is being driven by ongoing delays in interventional elective procedures caused by COVID, and the dynamics we're experiencing in medical are consistent with what our customers are seeing, and we expect this market to return to growth as these procedures start to increase later in the year.
And lastly in the Industrial segment, our energy business, we saw 4% organic growth, and this was driven by increase in penetration of renewables, especially benefiting from solar applications around the world.
From a margin perspective, in Industrial Solutions our margins declined year-over-year to 12.5%, and that was really driven by the significant drop in commercial aerospace volumes.
Sales in the segment grew 29% organically year-over-year, with strong growth in both data & devices and appliances.
In data & devices, our sales grew 24% organically year-over-year due to the strong position we have built in high-speed solutions for cloud applications.
Sales grew 35% organically year-over-year, driven by our leading global market position, share gains and ongoing market improvement across all regions.
From a margin perspective, our Communications segment and team delivered very strong execution in the quarter and delivered 21% adjusted operating margins, and these were up 720 basis points versus the prior year.
Adjusted operating income was $637 million, up approximately 23% year-over-year with an adjusted operating margin of 17%.
GAAP operating income was $612 million and included $17 million of restructuring and other charges and $8 million of acquisition-related charges.
We continue to optimize our manufacturing footprint and improve the cost structure of the organization and continue to expect total restructuring charges in the ballpark of $200 million for fiscal '21.
Adjusted earnings per share was $1.57 and GAAP earnings per share was $1.51 for the quarter and included restructuring, acquisition and other charges of $0.06.
The adjusted effective tax rate in Q2 was approximately 17%.
For the third quarter, we expect our tax rate to be up slightly sequentially and continue to expect an adjusted effective tax rate around 19% for fiscal '21.
Sales of $3.7 billion were up 17% versus the prior year and 6% sequentially, demonstrating the strength of our portfolio.
Currency exchange rates positively impacted sales by $115 million versus the prior year.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.57 was up 22% year-over-year and 7% sequentially, reflecting our strong operational performance.
Adjusted operating margins were 17% and expanded 80 basis points versus the prior year.
In the quarter, cash from operating activities was $580 million.
We had very strong free cash flow for the quarter of $477 million and a year-to-date free cash flow of approximately $1 billion, which is a record for the first half of a fiscal year.
We returned approximately $340 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in the quarter.
Our strong free cash flow performance demonstrates the strength of our cash generation model, and we expect to -- we continue to expect free cash flow conversion to approximate 100% for the full year.
To summarize, the outlook for many of the markets we serve is consistent with what we were seeing 90 days ago, along with some acceleration of growth in the commercial transportation, industrial equipment and communications markets.

Summary:
We delivered sales growth of 17% and generated record quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.57, and this earnings per share represents growth of 22% year-over-year.
Second quarter sales of $3.7 billion were better than our expectations in each of our segments.
Our earnings per share was a record at $1.57 in the quarter, and this was up 22% year-over-year and was driven entirely by our operating performance, resulting in adjusted operating margins being up 80 basis points year-over-year.
For the third quarter, we expect sales to be approximately $3.7 billion, and this is up significantly year-over-year on both a reported and an organic basis, and we expect adjusted earnings per share to be $1.57, which is in line with the levels we just saw in the quarter we just closed.
Adjusted earnings per share was $1.57 and GAAP earnings per share was $1.51 for the quarter and included restructuring, acquisition and other charges of $0.06.
Sales of $3.7 billion were up 17% versus the prior year and 6% sequentially, demonstrating the strength of our portfolio.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.57 was up 22% year-over-year and 7% sequentially, reflecting our strong operational performance.