Newport News Shipbuilding has completed installation of the flight deck on the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy.
The upper bow section, a giant piece of the puzzle, was recently lifted into place, according to a company news release. It weighs 780 tons and took 18 months to build.
Mike Butler, program director on Kennedy, said the company is looking forward to christening the ship this fall, ahead of schedule.
“The upper bow is the last super-lift that completes the primary hull,” he said.
The ship is being built using new digital tools, and Kennedy is on track to be completed at a lower labor cost than its predecessor, the first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford.
More than 3,200 shipbuilders and 2,000 suppliers from across the country are contributing to the construction of Kennedy.
The Newport News shipyard, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, the is the sole designer and manufacturer of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for the Navy.
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© 2019 the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
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