Ford (CVN 78) Flight Deck Timelapse

The flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) was completed April 9 following the addition of the ship's upper bow section at Newport News Shipbuilding. Ford is the first new aircraft carrier design in 40 years, replacing the Nimitz class of carriers. The new design brings many performance improvements, including: - 25 percent increase in sortie generation rate - 2.5 times electrical generation capacity over the Nimitz-class - Manpower reduction of 500 billets The new carrier class was redesigned from the keel to the mast of the island house. Among the improvements: - New reactor and propulsion plants - Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), an improvement over steam catapult system - New island - All electric ship - Major space rearrangement - Flight deck extensions - Advanced arresting gear - Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is the Navy's first aircraft carrier to be completely designed using a 3-dimensional product model. (Video courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries)