NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman announced a milestone in the development of the U.S. Navy's Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier following the completion of a design phase.
U.S. company Northrop Grumman's Virginia-based Shipbuilding unit is working under a contract to develop the next-generation Navy aircraft carrier designed using a three-dimensional Product Model.
Northrop Grumman has successfully completed development of the detail design phase for the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) in the Product Model virtual environment, marking a milestone for the company.
"We will continue to develop, mature and extract the engineering and planning instructions for construction from the product model, but we have reached the point where all the initial design data have been loaded into the Product Model and the entire carrier now exists in the virtual environment," Mike Shawcross, Northrop Grumman vice president of aircraft carrier construction programs, said in a statement.
"This virtual environment is very beneficial to our construction teams on the waterfront as it allows them to see and walk through the spaces before they actually build them."
