The Montek Division of E-Systems, 2268 S. 3270 West, and Wilcox Electric Inc., Kansas City, Mo., have received a $78.2 million contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to design and develop advanced versions of the microwave landing system.
The new systems, to be delivered for testing in 46 months, will allow aircraft to land in lower visibility conditions than can be handled by existing microwave landing systems. This will mean fewer weather-caused delays.Secretary of Transportation Andrew H. Card Jr. said the system will have a significant impact on FAA's ability to handle air traffic. It will provide greater efficiency and flexibility and offer pilots a broad range of paths to the runway instead of the one path the existing system provides.
Under the contract, E-Systems and Wilcox will produce six test systems and will be considered in the award of production contracts for the systems. E-Systems will produce the precision distance-measuring equipment, which constitutes about $15 million of the contract.