Aviation Week Honors Breakthrough Technologies and Best Aerospace & Defense Programs

Aviation Week Honors Breakthrough Technologies and Best Aerospace & Defense Programs

NEW YORK, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviation Week presented innovative companies with its annual Product Breakthrough and Program Excellence Awards during its recent "A&D Programs and Productivity Conference" at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix.

Aviation Week's Product Breakthrough Awards are given to companies developing the most innovative new technologies contributing to commercial and military aviation. 2004 recipients are:

* Wavestream Corp. for its Grid Amplifier. Wavestream, of San Dimas, CA,
provides solutions and capabilities across a range of commercial and
military applications, including satellite links, radar and terrestrial
communications, with the current focus on UAVs and UARs. A Ka-band Grid
Amp product targeted at Wideband Gap Filler satellite communications
applications is currently in beta test.

* Rockwell Collins for its WXR-2100 MultiScan Weather Radar. Rockwell
Collins, of Cedar Rapids, IA, was recognized for its contributions to
flight safety with its WXR-2100 radar, which predicts true strategic
weather out to 320 nautical miles, including the top of a storm.

* QinetiQ for its Tarsier Radar System. QinetiQ, Farnborough, England,
contributes to flight safety with this new Foreign Object and Debris
detector. The Tarsier Radar System can perform as a security screener
for perimeter breaches such as runway incursions and bird detection. The
system is expected to be available in 2005.

* Patuxent Maryland Naval Air Station's Vision Laboratory for its Laser
Event Recorder. Navair's Vision Laboratory's contribution to flight
safety and security is through a device that gives aviators instant
notice in the cockpit when they are on the receiving end of laser
radiation.

* Makino for its A-99E-CD High-Speed Horizontal Machining Center.
Tokyo-based Makino is recognized for its enhancement to the
manufacturing side of aerospace, bringing the axiom "Faster, Better,
Less Costly" back into play with its high speed machining center.



Aviation Week's Program Excellence Awards evaluates four categories of management leadership as it relates to programs -- strategic linkage, organizational capability, managing complexity and delivering performance. Recipients are:

* Boeing C-17. The C-17 program team drew top honors as the overall
program of excellence award winner for 2004. In spite of its humble
beginnings, the C-17 program has become one of the most successful
contemporary aerospace programs, according to our panel of judges.

* Northrop Grumman Global Hawk. A central player in the U.S. military's
strategy of employing unmanned systems, Global Hawk was called into
combat duty while still in low-rate initial production, and performed
extraordinarily well.

* Rockwell Collins Defense Advanced GPS Receiver program. Designed to
increase military responsiveness, agility, and survivability, judges
found the program to be particularly strong in its strategic fit with
Rockwell's long-term goals

* Raytheon Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System. This Army and
Marine Corps battle-proven system for planning, coordinating and
controlling all the military's fire support on the battlefield also
reduces risks from friendly fire. The program was the best in its class
for organizational capability -- in other words, bringing disparate team
members together, focusing them on the objective and making sure all of
them had the right information at the right time.

About Aviation Week Group


With nearly 50 products and services and an audience of millions of professionals and enthusiasts, the Aviation Week Group, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the largest multimedia information and services provider to the global aviation and aerospace industry. The cornerstone of the Aviation Week portfolio is Aviation Week & Space Technology, the world's leading aviation and aerospace industry magazine, covering technology, business and operations in the commercial, military and space markets for more than 100,000 paid subscribers in 180 countries. The group's web portal, http://www.aviationnow.com/, offers the industry's most reliable news, information and features.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2003 were $4.8 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.


Source: Aviation Week Group

CONTACT: Rob Kulat
Kulat Communications
(732) 219-5816
Kcomm@Hotmail.com

Web site: http://www.aviationnow.com/
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/


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