Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1970)

Levingston Shipyard To Build

Aluminum Hull For 80-Knot

Gas Turbine Propelled SES

The Bell Aerospace Division of Textron has announced that it has selected the Lev- ingston Shipbuilding Company of Orange,

Texas, to fabricate the hull structure of the 100-ton Surface Effect Ship test craft.

The test craft, a major step in the nation's long-range effort to determine the feasibility of building and operating large, high-speed

SES in the 4,000 to 5,000 ton class, is being designed and built by Bell's New Orleans

Operations, Michoud, La., under a contract from the Maritime Administration, U.S. De- partment of Commerce. The project is admini- stered by the U.S. Joint Navy/Commerce Sur- face Effect Ships Program Office.

Levingston has been awarded a subcontract by Bell to fabricate the hull structure to Bell's design and specifications. Final assembly of the test craft will be performed by Bell Aerospace.

The hull structure of the 100-ton test craft will feature a single hu'l form of welded marine aluminum, incorporating two side hulls ex- tending nearly the length of the craft and en- closed at the bow and stern by flexible end seals. The structural design is similar to that for high-speed marine craft in operation today.

The test craft will measure approximately 72 feet in length and will have a beam of 33 feet.

It is being designed for speeds in excess of 80 knots (approximately 92 mph).

Levingston Shipbuilding, founded in 1933, has had extensive experience in fabricating a wide variety of vessels for the United States

Government, the offshore oil industry, the maritime transportation industry and for ocean- ographic research.

Last year Levingston completed delivery of four patrol escort vessels built under con- tract for the United States Naval Ship Systems

Command. The company has worked exten- sively with aluminum and in one project alone nearly 1,000 tons of aluminum was fitted and welded into three vessels.

Designed for speeds in excess of 80 knots (approximately 92 mph), the hull of the test craft at times will be no more than a few inches below the water.

Another recent accomplishment was the fab- rication of the Glomar Challenger oceano- graphic research vessel for Global Marine Inc.

This ship, which is working for the Scripps

Institution of Oceanography in carrying out a deep-sea core drilling project funded by the

National Science Foundation, has established several drilling performance records since be- ginning operations in 1968.

The Levingston Shipyard is situated on the

Sabine River, just north of the Intracoastal

Waterway within 50 miles of the Gulf of Mex- ico.

Other major subcontracts previously award- ed by Bell Aerospace New Orleans Operations for various subsystems and materials for the 100-ton SES test craft include: Buehler Cor- poration, Indianapolis, Ind.—design, build and test the main transmission system; Philadel- phia Gear Corporation, King of Prussia, Pa.— design and develop supercavitating, semi-sub- mergible controllable pitch propellers; Pratt & Whitney Division of United Aircraft, Farm- ington, Conn.—three FT-12, 4,500-shaft-hp marinized gas turbine engines for main pro- pulsion ; Aluminum Company of America- aluminum sheet stock, plate stock and extru- sions.

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