Aai

AAI Corp. has been awarded a military contract to develop an improved system for aligning weapons on fighter planes and helicopters and increasing pilots' chances of hitting targets, the Cockeysville company announced yesterday.The development work gives AAI "a leg up on the competition" for a full-scale production contract for 500 or more electronic units that could total more than $100 million, said Frederick J. Jaklitsch, an operations manager at the Baltimore County defense contractor.

WASHINGTON -- AAI Corp. in Cockeysville received a potentially massive government contract yesterday to produce automated electronic equipment enabling airports to provide updated weather reports every 60 seconds to pilots as they begin to land.The new equipment marks a major advance in the safety of air travel, John A. Knauss, undersecretary and administrator of the Department of Commerce, said at a news conference here yesterday.Elbert W. Friday Jr., an official with the National Weather Service, said weather is a factor in many crashes each year.

United Industrial Corp., the New York-based parent of AAI Corp. in Cockeysville, suffered a 5.9 percent drop in second-quarter net income due, in part, to unprofitable defense contracts at the Baltimore County division.Sales rose slightly more than 37 percent during the period.In the most recent quarter, UIC posted a profit of $1.3 million, equal to 11 cents a share. This compares with net income of $1.4 million, or 11 cents a share, in the same period a year ago when earnings were inflated by the sale of an operating division.

United Industrial Corp., the parent of AAI Corp. in Cockeysville, reported a 79 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings yesterday and said it has hired a consultant to review the operations of its military contracting unit.Howard M. Bloch, secretary and treasurer of United Industrial, said the company hired the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand to examine AAI's operations in light of the declining defense budget."It only makes sense," he said, "to have a consultant review our operations, to recognize where the defense budget is going and help us prepare for change.

Irwin R. Barr, an inventor of military weapons and the co-founder of Hunt Valley-based AAI Corp., died at Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville on Monday of a heart ailment. He was 85. Mr. Barr was born in Newburgh, N.Y., and from 1938 to 1940 attended what is now the Academy of Aeronautics in Newark, N.J. He worked as an engineer for the Glenn L. Martin Co. from 1940 to 1944 and returned to the company in 1946 after serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1950, he left Glenn L. Martin and helped co-found Aircraft Armaments Inc., now AAI, a Hunt Valley-based company that has more than 2,000 employees and annual sales of more than $350 million.

United Industrial Corp. has agreed to buy a New Jersey competitor in an acquisition that makes United's AAI Corp. subsidiary in Cockeysville the dominant force in the fire trainer simulation market.Also, United has agreed to sell its Microflite Simulation International Corp., an earlier acquisition that went sour.On the buying side, United is taking over the operations of Symtron Systems Inc., a privately owned company in Fair Lawn, N.J., that was AAI's chief competitor in the fire trainer business.

Hunt Valley-based AAI Corp. is expanding the market for its unmanned aerial vehicles beyond the U.S. government with the purchase of an Australian company. AAI, a subsidiary of United Industrial Corp., announced yesterday that it paid $6.5 million in stock for privately held Aerosonde Pty Ltd. and Aerosonde North America Inc., which has sold UAVs to military and civilian customers in Australia, Asia and North America. AAI is best known for its Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems, a fleet of remote-controlled aircraft used by the Army to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence.

The state yesterday agreed to buy 18 new light-rail cars for $53.7 million in a deal that will create about 90 manufacturing jobs in Maryland.The Board of Public Works awarded the contract to ABB Traction Inc. of Elmira, N.Y., but a portion of the work will be performed by two Maryland-based subcontractors, AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley and Knorr Brake Corp. in Westminster.AAI will be paid $6 million, state officials said, to build the car bodies and the sets of wheels that roll on the tracks.

AAI Corp., the Cockeysville company that produced the Pioneer drones that were used effectively in the Persian Gulf war, is bidding on a new $1.2 billion contract for the development of a smaller plane that troops could deploy more rapidly.Pioneer, which carries a television camera in its belly, was used in the war to track the movement of Iraqi tanks and ground troops; to direct battleship and ground artillery fire; and to assess battle damage after bombing runs.The one complaint the military had with AAI drone was that the planes and related ground equipment were too large for rapid deployment to a war zone and speedy shifting from one part of the battlefield to another.

San Francisco transportation officials have recommended hiring a partnership of Hunt Valley's AAI Corp. to build 250 electric trolley buses for about $207 million.The city's transportation commission will consider the recommendation Tuesday, then send it to the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors, which will have the final say.A win for the AAI partnership would be the biggest achievement of its fledgling trolley enterprise and should mean new jobs at the Hunt Valley plant, spokeswoman Karolyn Wolf said.