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Original subtitles

Today on "Impossible engineering,"

the world's largest warship.

The aircraft carrier is a moving city

with all of the capabilities of any airfield,

and it can be moved anywhere in the world.

4-1/2 acres of cutting-edge military muscle...

The Ford class has taken a 40-year leap

in the development of aircraft carrier technologies.

...And the pioneering historic innovations...

Man, I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.

You know what I mean?

Let's go ahead and launch the second.

And you can see that those two flight paths

are naturally de-conflicted.

...That made the impossible

possible.

... Captions by vitac... www.vitac.com

captions paid for by discovery communications

The United States is renowned for its naval might.

It has some of the fastest

and most heavily-armed ships on the planet.

But patrolling the 139 million square-miles of oceans

requires more.

Its airborne units are vital to the Navy's success.

And basing an air force at sea

presents a unique engineering challenge

for people like

chief petty officer Jeremy Stoecklein

and his colleagues.

Those waters need to be patrolled,

need to be protected for American interests.

The forefront of military might

has really become naval aviation,

and it's very, very important

to transfer that power anywhere in the world.

The U.S. Navy requires a new breed of ship

capable of transporting more planes than ever before.

As we move into the 21st century,

there becomes a new need...

A new need for technology,

a new way to combat the forces around the world,

and to help out with humanitarian efforts

around the world.

The United States Navy needs something

brand new in technology to help those aids.

The solution...

...the Ford-class aircraft carrier.

Ford-class carrier is the largest warship ever built.

It's about 1,100 feet long,

weights about 100,000 tons,

it's about 24 stories tall.

Its scale is unheard of.

It's 35-knot top speed makes it pound-for-pound

the fastest carrier ever built,

and it's on the brink of making history.

The first of the colossal class, the Gerald R. Ford,

has just been delivered to the U.S. Navy

and is undergoing vital sea trials

to find out what it's capable of.

This ship can carry aircraft and technologies

that are out today,

as well as that we haven't even dreamt of yet.

This is the most impressive ship I've ever served aboard.

In dry dock in Newport news, Virginia,

Geoff Hummel and a team of engineers

are building the second

of this 10-strong fleet of carriers...

The John F. Kennedy.

We've been working on it for about three years,

and we got about another year and a half in the dry dock,

and then after that, we'll spend about two years of testing it

before we deliver it.

Mike Butler heads up construction

of these trailblazing ships.

Well, an aircraft carrier has to satisfy two major roles...

One is a humanitarian role,

and one is a defensive or offensive military role.

This ship does both and does it very well.

The largest warship ever built,

the Ford-class carrier is almost as long

as the empire state building is tall.

35 aircraft are stored in a giant hangar.

Three super-sized elevators deliver the planes

to an 1,100-foot-long flight deck.

Equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system

capable of launching planes faster than ever before.

The amount of technology that's been infused into this ship

is gonna put the Navy in a position

to fight the wars of the 21st century.

It's gonna be the most capable ship out there in the fleet.

But creating the world's largest mobile air base

poses many challenges.

How do you power a 110,000 ton vessel

with 4,500 crew members?

What we do is, live everyday lives.

So, washing laundry,

serving 20,000 meals a day.

So, it's like powering, essentially, a small city.

How is it possible to get jets airborne

in just a fraction of a normal runway?

The greatest challenge is to be able to get the aircraft

to the speed that it needs in order to take off.

And how can you bring them home safely?

Landing on a carrier requires an external means

of stopping the aircraft.

But the engineers face an even bigger problem.

The Ford class holds more planes

than any carrier before it.

They must be able to launch and recover

an astonishing 200 missions a day.

So, how do you achieve that on a ship?

Engineer Marco Estrada is facing that challenge.

Typically, an aircraft carrier

of the Ford class will hold approximately 78, 79 aircraft.

The job of managing the flight deck

is an organized chaos.

We have launches, you got recoveries,

you got fueling,

you got weapons at the same time.

So, it's a very challenging operation.

To achieve their unprecedented mission rate,

some aircraft must be able to land

at the same time that others are taking off.

It's an impossible problem that was faced

by the innovators of the past.

U.S. Navy pilot lieutenant Leslie Garcia

is a fast jet specialist,

well aware of the huge problems

of launching and landing on an aircraft carrier.

It is not uncommon to have over 20 aircraft launch

right before 20 aircraft are recovering

during the same open-deck time.

To simulate the straight deck's limitations,

lieutenant Garcia is handing over the flying

to a model plane club.

So, right now, we're putting down the center line

of the straight deck carrier.

I didn't know I was gonna get a workout

while I was out here, too.

The historic straight-deck design

is ready for takeoff,

but how will it cope?

They're gonna go airborne, execute their mission,

and then look to come in and land.

As the mission gathers pace,

landing simultaneously is impossible.

Now we've got the next cycle of pilots

getting ready to take off while the first cycle

that we launched are still airborne

and waiting for the opportunity to come land.

So, as you can see,

they're, basically, fouling the whole flight deck.

It's a very inefficient process.

But in the 1950s,

aircraft-carrier design was turned on its head.

Now a floating museum in San Diego,

the U.S.S. Midway

was one of the first American carriers

to be fitted with a game-changing solution...

The angled deck.

It was the brainchild of British

royal Navy captain Dennis Cambell

and engineer Lewis Boddington.

They supplemented the traditional straight deck

with a second runway.

The plane's landing area was now separated at the ship's waist

while launch catapults were safely positioned

at the front of the ship.

When this was a straight deck,

you would, basically, just see one landing area

straight up and down the ship,

with taxiing and launching aircraft

towards the bow of the ship,

landing aircraft towards the back.

Really, the game was changed

when we went over to the angled flight deck.

It became so much more efficient,

and, more importantly, so much safer.

The midway's remarkable refit

allowed her planes to take off and land at the same time.

The landing aircraft are gonna be offset

so that if they need to take back off,

if they missed a wire,

they will have the angled deck

that is going to keep them away

from the launching aircraft that are launching straight ahead.

So, will adding an angled deck

bring some order to today's mission?

As you can see, we've got one taking off.

He's gonna come around and start executing touch-and-goes

while we launch the other aircraft.

As on the midway,

Cambell and Boddington's addition

transforms this airstrip into a well-oiled machine.

He's approaching on his landing.

Let's go ahead and launch the second.

And you can see that those two flight paths

are naturally deconflicted because of the angle

that landing aircraft is coming in on.

And we're basically getting two landing strips

for the price of one.

The U.S. Navy's ultra-modern Ford class

is also equipped with an angled deck.

But whereas midway launched just 89 sorties a day,

the Ford class can complete over 200.

When you look at the flight deck as a whole,

4-1/2 acres seems large,

but as you add 50 fighter aircraft

and around 100 to 150 personnel at all times

performing their various tasks,

it gets very, very small very quickly.

The ballet of us doing our job they call "controlled chaos,"

and that's really what it is.

400 yards!

The Cambell- and-Boddington-inspired

angled flight deck enables the Ford class

to complete 25% more sorties a day

than the U.S. Navy's previous carrier class.

The angled flight deck is a major feat

in engineering in itself.

With that angled flight deck, we have a living airport

that is receiving aircraft at the same time

it is launching aircraft, simultaneously.

With the second in class, the John F. Kennedy,

under construction, it's up to engineer Marco

to deliver the Ford class's next awesome angled deck.

Currently, we are at the 01 level of the ship.

So, there is gonna be a couple more levels going up

where the flight deck's going to be.

So, currently, we're a little lower than the flight deck.

But once the flight deck is installed,

we should see the angled deck in this direction,

the island structure should be in that direction.

And that, in itself, is a major innovation.

So, just how did moving the island in relation

to the rest of the flight deck

change aircraft-carrier design forever?

The cutting edge Ford-class aircraft carrier,

a study in naval innovation and a dramatic improvement

on flight-deck efficiency and safety.

It differs from its predecessors

in a number of ways.

For example, the position of the island

is radically different from all previous designs

of U.S. aircraft carriers.

This is one of the keys to the class's

extraordinary capacity to launch

and recover aircraft at the same time.

On Ford class, the island structure

was moved from this area

to an area closer to the stern of the ship.

That allows more of the parking of the aircraft forward

of the island structure,

which allows the Navy operators

to turn around the aircraft faster.

Fuel, service, weapons loading,

in turn, generates more sorties.

At this point in time, this aircraft carrier design

is the pinnacle of flight operations support

for the U.S. Navy.

The relocated island also has a smaller footprint

than its predecessors,

creating an extra usable deck space.

Beneath the runways,

aircraft are stored in a giant hangar,

delivered to the flight deck

by 82-foot-long electromechanical elevators.

Positioned on the sides of the ship,

any craft can be maneuvered

without disrupting launch or recovery.

What you're looking at is what we call ace 3,

or aircraft elevator number 3,

which is right here on the port side of the ship.

And the elevator is up right now, as you can see,

but as you look on these slots, this is what actually slides

our aircraft elevators down to the hangar bay,

and how we move our aircraft in and out

for maintenance and operations

and then move it back up to the flight deck

and taxi them off.

The Ford class is undoubtedly taking

aircraft deployment to a whole new level.

But the engineers face another almighty problem...

Powering this giant carrier,

and it is giant.

The aircraft carrier is a moving base.

It is a moving city.

So, we have a mobile city, a mobile airstrip,

with all of the capabilities of any airfield,

and it can be moved anywhere in the world.

As tall as a giant sequoia,

longer than 60 New York cabs,

and almost the width of an airbus A380,

it can hold up to 75 aircraft and accommodate 4,500 crew.

In the dry dock, the second of this brand-new class,

the John F. Kennedy, is currently being assembled.

Construction director Geoff Hummel

is supervising part of the mammoth build.

When we're done

building her, we'll deliver a ship

of a little over 80,000 tons of displacement.

When the Navy actually loads it up with crew and planes

and supplies, it'll be close to 100,000 tons going to sea.

It will take more than 3.9 million pounds

of welded metal to complete this ship.

Construction on this scale

creates huge logistical challenges.

The solution is to build the Kennedy

in a series of massive sections,

known as super lifts.

Right behind us is what we call the lower bow super lift.

It's about 60 feet tall, a little over 100 feet long.

It's made up of seven units that were built

in our steels shops, brought over here,

and joined into one giant super lift.

And then if you look over, just aft of it,

what you'll see is the beginnings

of what we'll call the upper bow.

You can actually see the leading edge of flight deck

there with that rolled shape.

That's actually gonna be the very bow of the ship.

These mega-structures are only possible

because of a staggering piece of engineering...

One of the largest cranes in the world.

Behind me here is what we call our 1,050-ton crane.

Other people affectionately know it as "big blue."

This crane is rated for 1,050 metric tons.

It's a very capable crane.

The crane has two rails running what we call east and west,

towards and away from the river.

It spans about 540 feet between the rails,

and it's about 230 feet tall.

When you're maneuvering 1,100-ton steel sections,

there's no room for error.

Big blue's three hoists allow pinpoint precision.

With this crane, you're actually making one move

with all three hoists being synchronized.

It's got some pretty good precision,

as far as how accurately

we can place the unit, or move the unit,

to get it within an inch or less.

And then we can actually use some Jacks

to position the unit exactly where we want it.

It's just cool, man.

But once at sea, the Ford class's sheer scale

poses another enormous problem.

As their missions will last for months at a time,

propelling a ship of this size

with traditional thirsty combustion engines

is out of the question.

Not only that, the power needs to satisfy

the demands of over 4,500 crew.

A new power source is needed.

Can the innovators of the past

shed any light on the problem?

Cartagena in southeast Spain

could harbor a solution for the Ford class.

Former Spanish submariner Diego Quevedo

is visiting the historic naval base

of a nation that once ruled the waves.

By the 1800s,

the might of the Spanish Navy may have faded away,

but in 1888,

a new breed of maritime engineering surfaced.

The world's first

fully-functioning military submersible,

the 72-foot long peral changed the face of warfare.

But the Spanish engineers had the same problem

as the one facing the Ford class...

How to power the peral

on long missions through the world's oceans.

However, a combustion engine's toxic fumes

would be deadly in this air-tight steel tube.

So, how did the Spanish Navy power the peral,

and how can the answer help

to drive the greatest warship ever built?

The peral submarine was the first submersible vessel

of its kind in history,

and the Spanish Navy needed a way to power it

without the toxic fumes of a traditional combustion engine.

The submarine's designer,

naval engineer Isaac peral had an ingenious answer.

To create sustainable power beneath the waves,

he turned to electricity.

And today, Diego Quevedo

has special access to the heart of the solution.

The peral was lined with 33 tons' worth

of rechargeable lead-acid batteries.

Their first job...

To propel its sleek structure through the depths.

Virtually every system on board was also battery-powered,

making this the world's first truly self-sufficient sub,

cementing peral's contribution to marine power.

The peral's batteries allowed it

to cruise underwater for a few hours

with a range of 132 nautical miles,

but the Ford class' power source can keep it at sea

for months at a time without refueling.

Building on modern submarine technology,

the solution is a pair

of state-of-the-art nuclear reactors.

One of the major advantages

to having nuclear power is an engineering feat

of actually getting 100,000 tons of displacement

with the aircraft carrier through the water

at about 35-plus knots.

We are able to have 4.5 acres of sovereign American soil

anywhere in the world for up to 25 years

at a time under nuclear power.

The nuclear reactor split uranium, producing heat,

which converts water to steam, powering four turbines.

These rotate four propeller shafts to drive

the 1,100-foot-long carrier.

But the reactor's output is so immense

they can also produce huge amounts of electricity.

Unlike any carrier before it,

virtually everything on the trailblazing Ford class

is powered by electricity.

USS Gerald R. Ford carries a load

of 13.8 thousand kilovolts of amperage.

So you're looking at three times the amount of electrical load

that the aircraft carriers before us have ever had,

and that allows us for some of the new technology

that we have on board.

And over 9.8 million feet of electrical cabling

also provide energy for the 4,500 crew on board.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is a floating city,

so we have every service that a civilian counterpart

or an actual township that you might live in might have.

We have a post office, we have gyms,

we have a coffee shop, we have laundry service.

We have that on board so that we can sustain ourselves out

for long periods of time and really be effective.

But the civilian services are not the ship's main attraction.

It is, after all, a warship.

This brand-new carrier class has 17 decks.

Its colossal flight deck stretches to five acres.

It boasts supersized engineering

designed to deploy more aircraft missions

than ever before in any part of the world.

The first of this game-changing fleet

has only recently been commissioned into the us Navy.

USS Gerald R. Ford is setting the standard and setting the baR

on the way that aircraft carriers around the world

and the way that naval operations are gonna be

dealt with and sustained.

10 record-breaking carriers

will eventually make up the Ford class.

The second of which, the John F. Kennedy,

is currently being assembled.

When completed, it will be well over 950 feet long,

but its runway will only be

around 1/7 of a normal runway's length.

Launching aircraft in this distance

poses a huge problem for engineer Gabe Sava.

The runway on this carrier is gonna be just under 350 feet.

So the greatest challenge

involved in launching an aircraft from a carrier

is that you only have a fraction of the runway

that an aircraft typically would need in order to take off.

To get the aircraft to the adequate speed,

we have to use a system of launching,

which is a catapult system that propels

and accelerates the aircraft so that it can take off.

To date, launch catapults have been steam-driven,

but these systems lack acceleration control

and would rip apart the Ford class' lighter aircraft

such as unmanned drones.

Steam-powered catapults, by their very nature,

can put a lot of loads or stress on the aircraft.

In addition, steam catapults require a lot of maintenance.

There's a lot of corrosion within the troughs

because there's a lot of moisture.

Engineers needed a way to get aircraft up to speed

while also protecting their structural integrity

and that of the launching apparatus.

To do so, they would have to turn

to the innovators of the past.

On the U.S. Navy's most advanced warship ever,

traditional ship-to-air

launch techniques weren't going to cut it.

The team behind this monster vessel

needed a way to get aircraft up to launch speed

with about 1/7 of the traditional runway.

The Ford class' engineers

proposed a groundbreaking solution...

Catapult power generated by electromagnetics.

Petty officer Daniel Rivera is part of the launch team

involved in the initial testing.

We have to perform what's called dead-load testing.

A dead load is, essentially, a big piece of metal on wheels

that represents different aircraft weights.

And pretty much, we were on the flight deck,

and we launch each dead load.

The dead loads will go actually off the boat.

They will take off and fly over into the James river.

Concealed below the catapult's shuttle and rails,

the electromagnetic aircraft-launch system,

known as Emals,

uses the ship's power to create an enormous electrical charge.

The system uses 13,800 kilovolts

that's being generated from the ship

in order to power the equipment,

and with that energy, we're able to launch an aircraft zero

to about 150 miles per hour in just under 3 seconds.

With the plane on 100% throttle, this huge shot of electricity

is released into a series of electromagnets

positioned down two launch rails.

A powerful magnetic wave propels

the attached plane off the runway.

With Emals, the power that we produce during each aircraft

launch is a lot more controlled.

So, for that reason,

we can be able to launch a wider range of aircraft.

Using computer software

while the catapult is going down the track,

it knows how much power is needed

in order to get that aircraft off the deck.

But sometimes even the mighty Emals catapult

isn't enough to get the jets off the deck.

Chief petty officer Jeremy Stoecklein has experienced

this potentially dangerous situation firsthand.

There are times that we're out in the middle of the ocean,

depending on weather, depending on what the aircraft

needs to be loaded down with,

sometimes that aircraft doesn't have enough power

on 100% throttle to reach that minimum air speed,

and sometimes we need just a little bit extra.

For the engineers,

this is a problem that could end in disaster.

If the aircraft didn't have enough power,

it could be very catastrophic,

because the aircraft could end up going into the water

and not taking off at all.

So how can these phenomenal gets produce more power?

It's a challenge that's been faced in the past.

Engineer Dan Dickrell is at the Patuxent river

naval air base in Maryland,

the site of an extraordinary innovation

that could provide a solution for the Ford class.

This is a t-38 Talon.

It's a two-seat trainer.

It's powered by two general electric J85 engines.

Top speed's over 1,200 miles per hour,

which is supersonic, faster than the speed of sound.

Today, the t-38 is entering the hush house,

a secretive test facility where engineers can see

how jet engines perform up close.

All right, so the T-38's tied down.

The test is about to begin.

Let's do it.

With special clearance just feet from the engine,

Dan is witnessing a test that will reveal one of the keys

to a successful aircraft-carrier launch.

Here we go. Test is beginning.

Pretty excited.

You can hear it fueling up.

This incredible sight is created

by what's known as an afterburner.

It's the secret to producing the thrust required

by the Ford class' jets.

It was invented over 85 years ago by sir frank whittle,

one of the forefathers of the aircraft engine.

A meteor jet plane is ready for an unofficial approach

to the sound barrier.

During the 1940s, the race was on,

not only to break the sound barrier,

but also to reach 1,000 miles per hour.

Jet engines needed more power,

but making them bigger was out of the question.

So whittle devised his radical solution, the afterburner.

See, it's right here on the back of the engine.

It vastly increases the amount of thrust

that's available to the engine

without adding much weight or complexity to the engine itself.

With minimal adjustments, whittle figured out how to

dramatically outperform the standard jet engine,

and his ingenious modification holds the key

to getting aircraft from the deck

of a Ford-class aircraft carrier to the skies.

When engineers behind the Ford-class aircraft carrier

needed to get aircraft from deck to air

using about 1/7 of the runway space,

the answer was thrust, and they turned to sir frank

whittle's historic innovation to provide it.

A standard jet engine takes air in, adds fuel,

and ignites the mixture, propelling the aircraft forward.

Whittle realized much of the oxygen was unused,

so he added more fuel at the rear of the engine

to utilize it.

This creates a massive amount of extra thrust.

When you're designing something,

the simpler is usually the better,

and whittle's solution is amazingly simple

yet its performance increase is brilliant.

To fully appreciate the afterburn experience,

and air-force veteran, bud green,

is reacquainting himself with the f-100,

the first us jet to fly supersonic.

Zero to 62 miles per hour takes just seconds.

Oh.

At top speed, it smashes through the sound barrier.

Courtesy of a staggering piece of engineering.

We were going about 320 or something like that when he lit it,

and you can really feel the kick.

Just, all of a sudden, you've got a whole bunch

of additional thrust,

and it just knocks you on the rear end.

It was fun.

Does really kick.

Unbelievable.

Whittle's afterburner concept changed the game

for Ford class' jets.

The ability of the aircraft to have this afterburner option

increases our flexibility

and allows us to go up in weight with that extra boost of energy

that will allow us to reach that minimum air speed

so we can carry more ordinance, more fuel,

anything that we need to complete our mission.

Launching over 200 jets a day

is an incredible feat of engineering,

but it's only half the story.

Bringing them home is even harder.

Landing an aircraft is definitely

one of the most dangerous activities

that you do on the flight deck.

Somehow, the jets have to stop

in just 1/7 of a normal runway's length

or they'll end up in the water.

Can a bold pioneer from the past provide a solution

to this seemingly impossible challenge?

It may be hard to believe,

but this beautiful biplane could hold the key

to landing on the Ford-class carriers.

Engineer Dan Dickrell is in Virginia, discovering how.

So, that motorless airplane that just took off

is the Ely Curtiss pusher.

Even though that's a replica, it was built in 1910,

and it first flew in 1911.

The Curtiss pusher is unique

because it was the first plane to take off from a warship,

but American Eugene Ely wasn't satisfied.

He also wanted to land his plane on a ship.

However, he only had 120 feet to work with,

a problem demonstrated as today's flight draws to a close.

When the biplane landed,

it first touched down right about here,

and it coasted to a stop.

I'm gonna pace it off and see how far it took

to come to a complete stop.

If this plane was landing on Ely's ship,

anything over 120 feet would've ended in disaster.

All right, here. Hey, boom, how's it going?

- How you doing? - Terrific. How much was it?

It was 275 feet.

Ugh. It would've smacked probably

right into the superstructure of the ship in that case,

or over the side if there wasn't a superstructure.

But Ely had the help of engineer Hugh Robinson,

who came up with an idea to bring his aircraft

safely to a halt.

It's a solution that could help the Ford class.

Robinson came up with arresting gear.

This was a system that was designed

to bring the plane to a stop.

It was a little more than rope and sandbags.

Robinson tied the rope between the sandbags

across the ship's deck.

The plan was to transfer the landing plane's momentum

into the heavy bags by adding a tailhook

that would snag the rope as the plane passed over it.

And in 1911, this simple solution brought

Ely's plane safely to a standstill in just 30 feet

on board the converted warship.

That particular innovation was the example

that landing aircraft on ships was possible.

It really paved the way for what we see today.

Now the Ford class' engineers

are adapting Robinson's ingenious concept.

But at 65 times heavier and 4 times faster,

their jets will require more than rope and sandbags.

The team behind the Ford class will have to supersize

the innovative concept of arresting gear

to bring the carrier's Navy aircraft

safely back down to earth.

With little deck space to land on,

the engineers designing the Ford-class aircraft carrier

needed a way to stop descending aircraft in their tracks.

The solution is a cutting-edge system

known as advanced arresting gear.

The current advanced-arresting-gear system

on the Ford can arrest aircraft up to 50,000 pounds.

In order to do this, it has to have precise controls

so that you don't overstress the aircraft.

As the aircraft approaches,

it picks up the pendant off the deck.

The cable tension then goes through a cable shock absorber.

The shock absorber takes out the wave in the cable.

It's kind of like car shocks.

Then the braking power is provided by a water twister.

Situated below deck,

the water twister is a paddle wheel submerged in fluid.

Its rotation provides frictional resistance,

absorbing around 2/3 of the landing's energy.

The remainder of the arrestment is controlled precisely

by a motor generator that takes that kinetic energy

and turns it into electrical energy

that is then stored for later uses on AAG.

The advanced arresting gear is also incredibly adaptable.

During a two-second landing, computer controls continually

adjust the gear according to the aircraft's weight.

In other words, I can arrest lighter aircraft

than I would've been able to with my old system

or heavier aircraft

because I have the ability to actively control the arrestment.

This system also actively compensates for the aircraft

being potentially off-center or off-target,

and it is able to control the payout of cable

in order to reduce the amount of stress on the aircraft

and land it safely.

Brilliant engineering is taking another of history's

inspired innovations into the 21st century.

For those who serve on board, the Ford class is undoubtedly

taking aircraft-carrier design to new heights.

The fact that a 17-deck, 4.5-acre,

100,000-ton in-weight ship

can be in service for 50 years is just an incredible thought.

Through the extraordinary efforts

of its designers and crew,

this ambitious class is changing the face of marine engineering.

For me, it's a tremendous honor to be part of the team

coming together to put together this great Navy ship.

By building on the work of the pioneers of the past,

upscaling, and making their own discoveries,

the engineers are succeeding

in making the impossible possible.

Where we go from here... Really, the sky's the limit,

And I think USS Gerald R. Ford shows

that impossible engineering is not so impossible.

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