March 2010 Archives

aero-farm.com: Raytheon Rigged FAA Bid

By Barbara Leonard Courthouse News Service February 1, 2010

WASHINGTON (CN) - A high-ranking official at the Federal Aviation Administration conspired with her boyfriend to ensure that his employer, Raytheon, won a billion-dollar contract to train the nation's air traffic controllers, according to a complaint in Superior Court. The Washington Consulting Group claims it was unfairly ousted from the competitive bid, which it had held since 1986.

Charles Keegan, who left a high-level position with the FAA to work as a project manager at Raytheon Technical Services in 2006, used an "unfair competitive advantage" to win the contract, according to the complaint.

Washington Consulting claims Keegan was having "a romantic affair" with another FAA official, Maureen Knopes-Keegan, whom he married in August 2007.

Washington Consulting claims the two hatched a scheme to discourage other companies from bidding on the lucrative contract, though Washington Consulting Group claims its trainers have shaped the U.S. air traffic control system into "the safest in the world."

Enid News: Simulator technicians keep vital Vance training mission up and running

Much of each student pilot's training is conducted inside these multi-million dollar machines, which are used to teach pilots to cope with all kinds of different situations they will encounter in an airplane, all without leaving the ground. In a simulator there is no danger to the student or instructor, and the lessons can be conducted without burning any fuel.

The people charged with keeping these sophisticated machines up and flying have to be versatile, able to deal with computer, electronic, visual and even mechanical issues.

Ron Hall has been working on simulators at Vance since 1977, when instead of computers, terrain model boards and closed circuit TV cameras were used to simulate flight.

He is one of three T-1 simulator technicians at Vance employed by L-3 Communications, who maintain two full training simulators and 3 part-task trainers. Part-task trainers are used to teach students to program their onboard computers to guide the plane to 100 waypoints around the country, but can't simulate takeoffs or landings.

Ron Hall said maintaining the T-1 sims keeps him and his colleagues busy.

"There's quite a bit (of maintenance) because you have alignment in the visual systems," he said. "Your hydraulic systems have to be tweaked or aligned, all your (control) surfaces. Your power supplies, there's tons of power supplies, computers, fans."

The T-1 sims were built in 1988 and installed at Vance in 1990. Trying to maintain them is like trying to keep a 20-year-old PC running.

"I have diversified 486 and 386 computers in my sound system," Ron Hall said. "Try to find old hard drives to work in that kind of equipment. They sent us a lot of used F-16 visual systems that we use to keep the T-1s going. They don't manufacture tubes anymore so we have to rely on older tubes or older remanufactured tubes to keep our visuals going."