Aircraft Carrier Class News

Sunday, July 14 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of the United States. This was an important historical milestone for the country because of President Ford’s exceptional legacy of service, but also an important historical milestone for the Navy as we fittingly get ready to christen and launch the first of our next generation of aircraft carriers, the Gerald R. Ford class with the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Former President Ford was born in 1913, around the time of Eugene Ely’s pioneering flights aboard USS Birmingham and USS Pennsylvania.

Rolls-Royce has achieved full power operation of its first production MT30 powered main turbine generator set delivered to the U.S. Navy. The MT30, delivered to the U.S. Navy for the DDG-1000, USS Zumwalt program, achieved full power operation at 36 MW during testing at the US Navy’s land based test site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The selection by the US Navy for the DDG-1000 program marks the first large gas turbine engine ordered by the U.S. Navy for use in a generator set providing electrical power for propulsion and on-board systems throughout the ship.

According to the Daily Press, Tidewater Community College on Wednesday announced a new training center designed to help alleviate anticipated critical workplace shortages in shipbuilding and other waterfront related work. The Maritime and Transportation Center, set to open in 2008, will operate out of a building at the community college's forthcoming campus in Portsmouth -- training workers in everything from welding to truck driving, from computer aided design to port security. Shipyard workers are expected to be in great demand over the coming decades. Baby boomers are approaching retirement age even as Navy shipbuilding is going strong with an entirely new aircraft carrier class at Northrop Grumman Newport News and continued submarine building there.