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Newport News Awarded Contracts Totaling $3.7 Billion To Construct Two Carriers The riverboat West Virginia Belle, built by Patti Shipyards, features a unique Cummins propulsion system. Patti Shipyard Delivers 1,200-Passenger Riverboat To Robert's River Rides Newport News Shipbuilding has been awarded a $2.9-billion modifi- cation to an existing contract to pro- vide for the construction of two Nimitz Class aircraft carriers. The total target price for the construc- tion, including the original contract award of $724 million, amounts to nearly $3.7 billion. The earlier contract, signed in March, was for the designing and planning for construction of the two new aircraft carriers and for pur- chase of long lead time materials. Together with the $612-million Navy contract awarded to Newport News for two Los Angeles Class attack submarines, this award raises the shipyard's backlog to $8.7 mil- lion. Edward J. Campbell, presi- dent and chief executive officer of Newport News Shipbuilding, said: "We are most pleased with this award. It will enable our trained and experienced carrier construction work force to go from one ship to the next without interruption, allowing us to build them in the most cost- efficient manner. This award, along with current submarine construc- tion contracts, will ensure continua- tion of stable employment at the shipyard for the next several years." The two new Nimitz Class air- craft carriers are designated CVN 74 and CVN 75. CVN 74 is sched- uled for delivery in 1996, and CVN 75 in 1998. When christened, CVN 74 will be named the John C. Sten- nis. Newport News Shipbuilding is also currently building two other Nimitz Class carriers, the Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and the George Washington (CVN 73), and has con- tracts for the construction of 11 Los Angeles Class attack submarines. For free literature giving full in- formation on the facilities and capa- bilities of Newport News Shipbuild- ing, Circle 16 on Reader Service Card One of the largest passenger ex- cursion boats built this year has been put into service powered by a trio of 500-horsepower Cummins KTA-19 engines. The vessel sails on all-day excursion trips between South Charleston, W. Va., and Hun- tington, W. Va. Appropriately named the West Virginia Belle, this vessel is the lat- est addition in owner Bob Kehl's fleet. Mr. Kehl owns Robert's River Rides, which operates three other excursion/dinner boats on the Mis- sissippi River in the Quad Cities, Dubuque and Bettendorf areas of Iowa and Illinois. By any standards, the West Vir- ginia Belle is simply spectacular. Built by Patti Shipyards, Inc., Pen- sacola, Fla., and designed by their own in-house architectural staff, the West Virginia Belle measures 197 feet 9 inches by 46 feet with a 10- foot draft. She features two totally enclosed decks, a partially enclosed third deck, and an open fourth deck topped by a pilothouse. Although the boat will be certified for at least 1,200 passengers, Mr. Kehl will lim- it capacity to 1,000 on all-day 100- mile trips. While the KTA-19 engines are one of the standard workhorses of the Cummins marine diesel line, the propulsion system aboard the West Virginia Belle is unique. For example, the Columbian Ka- plan-style propellers are enclosed in Padget-Swann kort nozzles. "That's a first for passenger excursion ves- sels as far as we are concerned," said Frank Patti, owner of Patti Ship- yard. Another important aspect of the propulsion system is its vibration isolation system, supplied by Lo Rez Vibration Control, British Colum- bia, Canada. This system provides an effective isolation system for en- gine-sourced vibration in medium- and high-speed marine engines, re- ducing noise by 90 percent over the entire speed range of the engine. It was custom designed for this appli- cation by Lo Rez working with the Patti design staff and Cummins en- gineering. WEST VIRGINIA BELLE Equipment List Main engines (3) Cummins Propellers Columbian Bronze Kort nozzles Padget-Swann Generator engines Cummins Reduction gears Twin Disc Engine controls Mathers Steering controls . . . Custom Hydraulics Bowthruster Arcturu Vibration isolation Lo Rez Radar Furuno Depth sounder Datamarine Pumps Scott Water purifier Aquafine Sewage treatment systems . . Microphor "We have used similar isolation systems on smaller horsepower en- gines before," said Dave Adams of Cummins engineering department. "But, this is the first installation we know of on engines in the 500 horse- power range." Two additional Cummins engines are located far forward to power a pair of 250-kw gensets. Cummins NT855 models were chosen for this job. All five Cummins engines were sold by Northern Iowa Diesel, Du- buque, Iowa. The hydraulic system onboard the boat was supplied by Custom Hydraulics, Gretna, La. A PTO, at- tached to one of the gensets, runs a hydraulic pump that powers the bowthruster. Separate electric mo- tors powering hydraulic pumps op- erate the steering system, and the paddlewheel lifting system. The West Virginia Belle has a cosmetic paddlewheel that can be lifted out of the water to cut drag during times when the boat is underway at full speed. Among the state-of-the-art sys- tems onboard the riverboat are an eight station TV monitoring system, centralized liquor dispensing, elec- tronic engine controls with five con- trol stations, three Microphor sew- age treatment systems and an Aqua- fine ultraviolet water purifier. For free literature detailing the boatbuilding services of Patti Ship- yard, Circle 30 on Reader Service Card Over a million parts for anything that moves on or under the sea We know where they are and who has them. Worldwide. 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