Huntington Ingalls Industries’s Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) has successfully installed the covers for catapult one on the flight deck of the US Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).
The installation marks another step towards completion of the carrier’s refuelling and complex overhaul (RCOH) programme.
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The catapult covers bridge the catapult trough in order to deliver a smooth, continuous flight deck, and also offer support for the shuttle that launches aircraft.
V-2 division maintenance chief, chief aviation boatswain mate Larry Pugh said: "The biggest advantage to the covers being installed is that it gives our junior sailors a chance to see what the catapults look like once they’re back together.
"We’ve been able to go up to the flight deck and actually have them put eyes on what we’ve been trying to explain to them."
USS Abraham Lincoln is the fifth ship of the Nimitz-class to undergo an RCOH. The overhaul process of catapult started at the very beginning of the RCOH. Lincoln is scheduled to start catapult testing later this year.
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By GlobalDataThe flight deck of the aircraft carriers now has more space and a new look as the installation of catapult covers is in progress.
For this RCOH, the Air Department USS Abraham Lincoln has already saved more than $8m in man-hours and parts by recycling items from the decommissioned USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). Old lagging on the ceiling of hangar bays one, two, and three has also removed and replaced
Image: US Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln. Photo: courtesy of US Navy photo: Public domain.
