Jane Edwards
HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division started topside testing of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system on the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier.
EMALS is designed to replace the steam catapults on the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, can operate at a speed of more than 150 miles per hour and works to provide expanded operational capability, more accurate end-speed control and higher launch-energy capacity, HII said Wednesday.
EMALS was first integrated into the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier.
During the “dead-load” testing, the NNS team and the JFK crew used and launched car-like structures of different weights to simulate the service branch’s actual fixed-wing aircraft that will be launched off the carrier.
“As we make sustained progress in the construction, testing and turnover of John F. Kennedy, reaching the dead load testing phase is a visual demonstration of how far we’ve come,” said Lucas Hicks, vice president of the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) new construction aircraft carrier program.
HII said the John F. Kennedy is the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier under development within its NNS division, which is also working on two other Ford-class carriers: Enterprise and Doris Miller.
