Aai Corp

AAI Corp., the Hunt Valley company most known for its Shadow spy plane, is being split into three separate units by its parent company. Textron Inc., which has owned AAI since 2007, said it was dividing the company to make it more efficient and to better serve customers. The new units are: AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, AAI Test & Training and AAI Logistics & Technical Services. Each unit will be headed by separate senior vice presidents and general managers. Ellen Lord, AAI's current senior vice president and general manager, will now lead Textron Defense Systems.

Salvatore Joseph "Joe" DeMarco, a commercial artist and former manager of art services for AAI Corp. who was also widely known for his detailed drawings of World War I aircraft, died Friday of lung cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The White Marsh resident was 93. The son of a dentist and a homemaker, Mr. DeMarco was born and raised on Lyndhurst Street in West Baltimore. He attended St. Bernadine parochial school and ended his formal education when he was 14. "His father died, and he had to go to work to help support his family.

Carroll F. Hartlove, 70, AAI Corp. manager Carroll F. Hartlove, former manager of mechanical support systems for AAI Corp., died Feb. 28 of heart failure at Franklin Square Hospital Center. The Perry Hall resident was 70. Born and reared in Highlandtown, Mr. Hartlove was a 1951 graduate of Patterson Park High School. After serving in the Army for two years, he began mechanical engineering studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1960.

Michael G. Delss, a materials coordinator for AAI Corp. and an avid fisherman and crabber, died Aug. 23 from complications of diabetes at his Essex home. He was 52. Michael George Delss, the son of a brick mason and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Essex. He was a 1978 graduate of Kenwood High School. "While he was in high school he worked as a brick mason with his father," said his wife of 14 years, the former Leslie Elaine Kolakowski. In 1985, Mr. Delss went to work for the Linen Locker as a distribution manager.

AAI Corp., trying to lessen its reliance on federal contracts, has made its second acquisition in six months aimed at beefing up its commercial business.The Hunt Valley-based company on Thursday acquired ACL Technologies Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., a leader in the design and manufacture of hydraulic testing systems.ACL is now a wholly owned subsidiary known as AAI/ACL Technologies. The new unit's headquarters will remain in California, but a new president will be appointed by AAI."This is a significant opportunity for us," said Paul J. Michaud, vice president of finance for AAI, which is a subsidiary of United Industrial Corp.

Robert B. Chapman III, a former president and a co-founder of AAI Corp. who had a second career as a college vice president, died of pneumonia Saturday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 86 and a longtime resident of Lutherville before moving three years ago to Oak Crest Village. Born in Baltimore and raised in the 2400 block of Maryland Ave., he was a 1935 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a civil engineering degree from the Johns Hopkins University. In the late 1930s, he joined John E. Greiner Co. as a structural engineer and designed a span of the U.S. 40 bridge over the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace.

AAI Corp., the struggling Cockeysville-based defense arm of United Industrial Corp., announced a major restructuring yesterday aimed at reducing its operating costs and making the company more competitive in both its military and new commercial markets.In what has to be good news for an already nervous work force, the company estimated that the reorganization will eliminate only about 10 jobs. AAI, one of the fastest growing companies in Maryland during the defense buildup of the Reagan administration, has eliminated more than 2,000 jobs in recent years, including about 100 in the past two months.

United Industrial Corp. has picked Richard E. Erkeneff, a senior executive of McDonnell Douglas Corp., to head its struggling AAI Corp. subsidiary in Cockeysville.Mr. Erkeneff succeeds Thomas V. Murphy, who resigned under fire as president and chief executive in April following a sharp drop in AAI's earnings. The falloff was caused partly by a $23 million corporate restructuring and the disappointing performance of a commercial flight simulation company AAI acquired two years ago to lessen its dependence on a declining Pentagon budget.

Maryland defense contractors looking to diversify their markets are reaping rewards from a $16 billion effort to improve the safety and efficiency of the nation's air traffic control system.Hunt Valley-based AAI Corp. recently landed a contract worth more than $200 million to produce the Automated Surface Observation System, which will provide instantaneous weather information to pilots and air traffic controllers.The Westinghouse Electronics Systems Group in Linthicum has contracts worth more than $1 billion to produce four kinds of radar systems for commercial airports around the country.

United Industrial Corp., the parent company of Hunt Valley-based AAI Corp., announced yesterday that it is "evaluating alternatives to enhance shareholder value" - including a possible sale of the company. AAI, which manufactures unmanned aircraft and training simulators for the military, accounts for roughly 85 percent of its parent company's business. United Industrial has long considered AAI its core enterprise and has tried to sell off unrelated businesses in the past. But yesterday's disclosure, including an announcement that the company had hired the investment banking firm Wachovia Corp.

Edward T. Kusterer, a retired mechanical engineer and World War II veteran, died April 4 of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 94. Mr. Kusterer was born in Richmond, Va., and moved to the city's Pimlico neighborhood in 1918. He was a 1934 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School. He was working as a bank teller at the old Maryland Trust Co. on Eutaw Street when he was drafted in 1941 into the Army Air Corps. After being commissioned a second lieutenant, he joined the 99th Bomb Group, 346th Squadron in Oran, Algeria.

AAI Corp., the Hunt Valley company known for its Shadow spy plane, notified 50 employees Thursday that they are being laid off in the next two weeks. Anna-Maria Palmer, AAI's vice president of human resources, said Thursday that those positions were being eliminated to reduce job overlaps and to be more efficient. AAI employs 1,600 workers in Hunt Valley. Palmer said affected workers were encouraged to apply for 40 job openings in Hunt Valley as well as 140 openings at AAI offices throughout the country.

AAI Corp., the Hunt Valley company most known for its Shadow spy plane, is being split into three separate units by its parent company. Textron Inc., which has owned AAI since 2007, said it was dividing the company to make it more efficient and to better serve customers. The new units are: AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, AAI Test & Training and AAI Logistics & Technical Services. Each unit will be headed by separate senior vice presidents and general managers. Ellen Lord, AAI's current senior vice president and general manager, will now lead Textron Defense Systems.

Shares of United Industrial Corp. tumbled more than 20 percent yesterday after the Hunt Valley company reported first-quarter profit down nearly one-third from a year ago. While the manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft training simulators saw a 28 percent increase in revenue for the quarter, officials blamed the sharp drop in profit on a property sale a year ago that boosted earnings. Excluding the one-time gain, the company missed analysts' forecasts by 5 cents a share.

James R. Cooley, an AAI Corp. engineer and avid hiker who never lost his affection for New Hampshire's White Mountains, died of melanoma Monday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Reisterstown resident was 53. Mr. Cooley was born in Middletown, Conn., and raised in Portland, Conn. After graduating from high school in 1970, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1974 and a master's a year later. While at Rensselaer, part of Mr. Cooley's graduate work involved heading up the design of the electronics installed on the Mars Rover project, which was contracted from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

United Industrial Corp. took a final step in the long, slow surrender to its Maryland-based progeny yesterday, agreeing to change its name to that of the Hunt Valley subsidiary that accounts for more than 90 percent of its annual business - AAI Corp. The company's New York headquarters closed months ago, relocated to the Industry Lane campus where AAI manufactures pilotless aircraft and military testing and training equipment. The last of the old family owners retired when the New York office shut down, having watched United Industrial's once-far-flung holdings get sold off and winnowed down to two remaining businesses.

Federal Contracts Report is a weekly summary of selected contracts recently awarded by the federal government to companies and other vendors of the Baltimore area.* Francis Scott Key Medical Center of Baltimore won a $2,318,054 contract from the National Institutes of Health to provide miscellaneous services.* Johns Hopkins University of Laurel won a $60,053,799 contract from the Navy to provide research, development, engineering and technical services supporting tactical strategic systems, space science, geophysics, biophysics and micro-electronics.

Federal Contracts Report is a weekly summary of selected contracts recently awarded by the federal government to companies and other vendors in the Baltimore area.* Environmental Technologies Group Inc. of Baltimore won a $40,096,000 contract from the Army to supply 6,400 chemical agents monitors.* Alban Engine Power Systems of Baltimore won a $4,385,526 contract from the Navy to purchase ship diesel generator sets.* Kaydon Corp. of Baltimore won a $499,765 contract from the Defense Construction Supply Center to supply pumps and compressors.

Robert B. Chapman III, a former president and a co-founder of AAI Corp. who had a second career as a college vice president, died of pneumonia Saturday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 86 and a longtime resident of Lutherville before moving three years ago to Oak Crest Village. Born in Baltimore and raised in the 2400 block of Maryland Ave., he was a 1935 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a civil engineering degree from the Johns Hopkins University. In the late 1930s, he joined John E. Greiner Co. as a structural engineer and designed a span of the U.S. 40 bridge over the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace.