Think your job is complicated? Try building America's first new class of aircraft carrier in two generations. A while back, I took a trip down to Newport News, Virginia, where Northrop Grumman engingeers are putting together the 100,000-ton monster ships that are supposed to form the backbone of the U.S. Navy for the next 100 years. Turns out building these mega-vessels has as much to do with 3-D computer simulations as it does with shaping steel, 400,000 pounds at a time. Here's my *Popular Mechanics *report, co-written with Joe Pappalardo, on how it's done.
*[Photo: *Grant Delin / PopMech]
