An administrative law judge has rejected the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) attempt to award a contract to overhaul an air traffic computer system without seeking competitive bids.

FAA officials said today that they still plan to hire someone to do the work but have not decided how to proceed.

Judge Stephen M. Daniels said the FAA could not hire Lockheed Martin to install new software in computers at 20 centers that control airline traffic at high altitudes and between airports. The job will entail rewriting antiquated codes the computers now use.

AirWise News

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), June 21, 2001

Answers

Very interesting! Is this to rewrite antiquated codes for antiquated computers?

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), June 21, 2001.

It would certainly be interesting to know the extent to which the use of these "antiquated codes" has been contributing to current problems. It would also be interesting to know why these codes have not been replaced before now.

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), June 21, 2001.