If any decision goes against you, the knee-jerk reaction among Americans is to reach for your lawyer and try to find some reason excuse for crying foul, so it was hardly likely that the biggest single contract ever won by IBM would be let through without a challenge, and so General Motors Corp’s Hughes Aircraft is contesting the award to IBM of the $3,600m Advanced Automation System air traffic control contract by the US Department of Transport: Hughes complains that IBM was able to undercut its own bid because it was permitted to include used computers where Hughes had to agree to supply new ones; it also reckons that IBM’s bid did not meet the mandatory requirements.