October 12, 2025 – 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.