From its shipyard just past the floodwall in New Orleans East, Textron Systems designs, builds and tests the latest in hovercraft technology.

Workers there take in 40-foot-long sheets of raw aluminum, cut them into components, build up subassemblies and put together watertight hulls before flipping them over and adding the modules on top. The whole process takes about two years before the hovercraft head outside and undergo the rigorous set of trials required by their U.S. Navy purchaser.

Over the past five years, Textron has completed 15 next-generation hovercraft — called Ship-to-Shore Connectors — with plans to build another 54 at its 47-acre Chef Menteur Highway plant. The company also operates in Slidell and at the Michoud Assembly Facility.

The division of Rhode Island-based Textr

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