Document and Entity Information - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
	Sep. 29, 2017	Mar. 27, 2018	Mar. 31, 2017
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Document Type	10-K/A
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	The purpose of this Amendment No. 1 to Form 10-K (this Amendment or Form 10-K/A) for fiscal 2017, previously filed on November 21, 2017, (Original Filing) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), is to restate our previously issued consolidated financial statements and related disclosures in our Original Filing. This Form 10-K/A also includes in Note 21 – “Quarterly Financial Data (Unaudited)” to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K/A restated quarterly financial information for each of the first three quarterly periods in the years ended September 29, 2017, and September 30, 2016, as originally included in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for those respective periods, as well as the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.In this Amendment we have restated our consolidated financial statements for fiscal year ended September 29, 2017 (fiscal 2017), fiscal year ended September 30, 2016 (fiscal 2016), and the unaudited recast year ended October 2, 2015, the quarters in the fiscal 2017 and 2016, as originally filed on Form 10-Q, and the 11-month transition period of November 1, 2014, through October 2, 2015 (the 2015 transition period ), presented in Part II, Item 8 Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, and the unaudited selected financial data for the fiscal years 2017, 2016 and 2015 presented in Part II, Item 6 Selected Financial Data. We refer to the misstatement corrections contained in the restated financial statements described herein collectively as the “Restatement.”
Document Period End Date	Sep. 29, 2017
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2017
Document Fiscal Period Focus	FY
Trading Symbol	ESL
Entity Registrant Name	ESTERLINE TECHNOLOGIES CORP
Entity Central Index Key	0000033619
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--09-29
Entity Well Known Seasoned Issuer	Yes
Entity Current Reporting Status	No
Entity Voluntary Filers	No
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		29,426,691
Entity Public Float			$ 2,562,036,264