IBM’s RT series, known in the UK as the 6150, may have been a loser in the AFCAC contract, but was the winning system at the centre of another huge US contract awarded in July: the $3,600m Advanced Automation System air traffic control installation for the US Federal Aviation Administration, which will be based around a network of RTs. This bid, won by IBM in partnership with Raytheon Co and Computer Sciences Corp, was also the subject of an appeal from General Motors’ Hughes Aircraft, which bid Sun Microsystems workstations against IBM. Hughes lost its appeal at the beginning of this month, and has apparently decided against further appeals; it is expected to console itself by bidding instead on a similar upgrading of the air traffic control network north of the border in Canada.
