NDT Simulator and Hands-On Practice for Newport News, Virginia

Newport News is a shipbuilding city in the most literal sense. The shipyard at the mouth of the James River is the only yard in the United States that builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, it builds Virginia-class attack submarines in partnership with another yard, and it fabricates bows, sails and sterns for the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. That is new construction on an enormous scale: miles of weld, thick sections, demanding acceptance standards and an inspection workforce that has to be both large and consistently skilled. Around it, the Virginia Peninsula adds aerospace research at NASA Langley in Hampton, Army aviation maintenance training at Fort Eustis, coal export piers on the waterfront and a large base of manufacturers and suppliers. Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience. Practical NDT is an immersive, 3D, game-like environment where trainees and working inspectors can run realistic weld and component inspections in a browser or app and get instant scored feedback. This page explains how it supports the Peninsula’s new-build shipbuilding and aerospace workforce.

Why Hands-On NDT Practice Matters for a New-Construction Shipbuilding Workforce

Shipbuilding inspection is a volume game with no room for inconsistency. Every weld on a hull, a deck, a foundation or a piping system is built to a drawing and a procedure, inspected against defined acceptance criteria, and documented. Inspectors look at an enormous amount of weld in a year, which is good for building skill in the common cases but can hide weaknesses in the uncommon ones. A radiographic interpreter who sees thousands of acceptable films may see very few examples of a specific kind of crack or incomplete fusion. An ultrasonic inspector who works mostly on one joint configuration may be rusty on another. When the rare indication appears, the question is whether the inspector recognises it. The only way to guarantee that is practice on those rare cases, and they cannot be manufactured on demand in production hardware.

Growing the workforce is the other pressure. Naval shipbuilding programs on the Peninsula have needed large numbers of new tradespeople and inspectors, and bringing people from zero to competent takes structured instruction, supervised practice and time. Physical specimens and lab time are finite, and a production yard cannot give every trainee unlimited access to flawed coupons and radiographic equipment. Radiography in particular needs licensed sources or X-ray equipment and strict radiation controls, so practice exposures are expensive in both time and safety overhead. Practical NDT gives new people a way to repeat the fundamentals as many times as they need, and experienced people a way to drill the rare defects, without consuming specimens, booking lab time or going near a source.

Methods You Can Practice: RT Interpretation, Phased Array Simulator, TOFD and More

Practical NDT covers 12 methods. The surface methods are penetrant testing (PT), magnetic particle testing (MT) and visual testing (VT). The volumetric methods are contact ultrasonic testing (UT), phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT), time of flight diffraction (TOFD) and radiographic testing (RT). The electromagnetic methods are eddy current testing (ET) and magnetic flux leakage (MFL). The specialised techniques are long range ultrasonic testing (LRUT) guided-wave screening, internal rotary inspection system (IRIS) ultrasonic testing of heat-exchanger and boiler tubes, and positive material identification (PMI) for alloy verification. Each scenario asks for the decisions a real technician must make: technique selection, calibration, coverage, indication recognition, sizing and reporting.

For Newport News, weld inspection is the centre of gravity. RT scenarios let a trainee practise exposure setup and, more importantly, image interpretation: separating porosity from slag, recognising incomplete fusion and incomplete penetration, and spotting the fine linear indication that might be a crack. The phased array simulator and TOFD scenarios work on weld coupons and fabrication joints, so an inspector can practise scan plans, focal laws, index offsets and flaw sizing on butt and T-joint geometries. The ultrasonic testing simulator builds conventional shear-wave technique, which is still a core skill even where phased array is used. MT, PT and VT scenarios drill the surface inspection that accompanies almost every structural weld. PMI scenarios reinforce alloy verification on piping and fittings. ET scenarios in the Aircraft Hangar support people working in aviation maintenance and aerospace research roles on the Peninsula.

Five Environments and Where Peninsula Teams Start

Practical NDT is organised around five virtual workplaces and 33 guided lessons. The NDT Lab has 52 jobs on bench specimens and reference blocks, where fundamentals and calibration are learned. The Welding Workshop has 52 jobs on weld coupons and fabrication joints, the natural home for shipbuilding and fabrication inspectors. The Aircraft Hangar has 54 jobs on airframe and component inspection, relevant to Army aviation maintenance at Fort Eustis and aerospace work around Hampton. The Oil & Gas Site has 73 jobs covering weld, corrosion, tube and screening practice in a process plant, useful for inspectors who also work on piping, power and industrial jobs. The Storage Tank environment covers UT shell thickness surveys and MFL floor screening on a full-size tank. Most Newport News users begin in the NDT Lab and the Welding Workshop, and aviation-focused users add the Aircraft Hangar.

Built for Every Skill Level, From Apprentice to Level III

The Peninsula has a long tradition of structured trade education. The shipyard’s own apprentice school, founded in 1919, runs multi-year programs combining academics and on-the-job training, and local community colleges and military programs feed the trades as well. A new NDT trainee on the Peninsula often already understands welding and ship construction and needs to learn the inspection side. The guided lessons and the NDT Lab take them through what each method detects, how the equipment works, how to calibrate and what an obvious indication looks like, before they are asked to find something subtle. Scoring is immediate and specific: did they cover the weld, was the setup right, did they find and characterise the flaw correctly?

Working inspectors use the platform to stay sharp on less-used methods and to practise rare defects: a transverse crack in a weld cap, lack of sidewall fusion in a thick joint, incomplete penetration hiding behind a root geometry, or a small cluster of porosity next to a planar flaw. Level IIIs and team leads can build and assign scenario sets, benchmark results objectively across a crew, and find coverage gaps before a new hull section or a new program phase starts. In an environment where consistency across hundreds of inspectors matters, that objective comparison is often the most valuable feature of all.

How Practical NDT Complements Formal ASNT Training and the Practical Exam

Practical NDT is a skills-practice and readiness tool. It does not grant certification and it does not replace the practical examination on real specimens that ASNT SNT-TC-1A and an employer’s written practice require. Under SNT-TC-1A, the employer’s written practice specifies training, experience and the general, specific and practical examinations, and the practical exam is carried out on real specimens using real equipment. A simulator does not change any of that, and Atlantis does not claim that it does.

The value is in preparation. Practical NDT is designed to complement the Atlantis NDT training program for Level I, II and III, giving trainees many more repetitions than a physical lab can offer before they sit a practical exam or start production inspection. The scenario library was designed by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT, who also leads Atlantis training, so the simulator follows the same order as class and bench: setup, coverage, detection, characterisation and reporting. Naval shipbuilding also applies its own inspection and personnel qualification requirements through naval technical publications and contract specifications, and aviation maintenance programs have their own rules. That is market context about what local employers may require. Atlantis frames its own NDT training around ASNT SNT-TC-1A, and the simulator is practice, not a qualification route for any of those programs.

The Newport News and Peninsula Inspection Landscape

The shipyard dominates. It is the only US yard capable of building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and currently builds Gerald R. Ford-class carriers, it builds Virginia-class attack submarines in collaboration with General Dynamics Electric Boat, and it constructs bows, sails and sterns for Columbia-class submarines that are then barged to Connecticut for final assembly. It also carries out carrier refueling and overhaul work. All of this makes the Peninsula one of the largest concentrations of weld inspection in the country. The shipyard and its supplier base are described here as the industrial character of the city only; they are not Atlantis customers or partners.

Beyond shipbuilding, NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton has long been a centre of aeronautics research, including work on structures and materials, and Joint Base Langley-Eustis combines an Air Force fighter base at Langley with Fort Eustis, where the Army trains aviation maintainers. That brings airframe inspection and ET skills into the local workforce, which is why the Aircraft Hangar environment is relevant here. The Newport News waterfront also hosts coal export facilities with heavy structural steel, conveyors and piers. The Peninsula’s manufacturers include metalworking and fabrication firms that support the shipbuilding supply chain. Industrial radiography anywhere in Virginia is licensed and inspected by the Virginia Department of Health’s Radioactive Materials Program within the Office of Radiological Health. For a city with so much radiographic weld inspection, the ability to practise RT interpretation without a source is especially useful for trainees.

Virtual NDT Training for Shift Workers on the Peninsula

Shipyard and base workforces run on shifts, overtime and schedule changes, which makes fixed-time classroom practice hard. Virtual NDT training fits around that. A second-shift inspector can complete a TOFD refresher before work, an apprentice or trainee can run a guided lesson from home in Hampton, Yorktown or Williamsburg, and a Level III can review results and assign new scenario sets without pulling people off the floor. Practical NDT is not a substitute for supervised time with real equipment and real specimens, but it means that time is spent confirming and extending skills rather than reintroducing basics. For anyone searching for hands-on NDT training in Newport News or NDT practice outside of working hours, a browser-based simulator removes the scheduling barrier.

Bringing Practical NDT to Your Newport News Team

Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience, and a Newport News rollout is straightforward. We begin with an online demo focused on your work: the Welding Workshop with RT interpretation, PAUT, TOFD, UT, MT and PT for shipbuilding and fabrication; the NDT Lab for apprentice-level fundamentals; and the Aircraft Hangar with ET and UT for aviation and aerospace roles. We then agree access for trainees, inspectors and leads, the first scenario sets to assign, and how progress will be reviewed. The platform runs in a browser or app with nothing to install beyond normal web access. Pricing is a quote on request, and Practical NDT is designed to be affordable, accessible and fully customizable. Request a Practical NDT demo for Newport News, or ask how simulator practice fits alongside formal Level I, II and III courses. You can also email info@atlantisndt.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Practical NDT replace the practical certification exam?

No. It is a practice and readiness tool. Certification under ASNT SNT-TC-1A depends on the employer’s written practice, which covers training, experience, and general, specific and practical examinations, with the practical exam performed on real specimens using real equipment. The simulator does not certify anyone and does not replace naval, aviation or contract-specific qualification requirements.

What experience level is it for?

All levels. New trainees and apprentices use the NDT Lab and 33 guided lessons for fundamentals. Working inspectors use rare-defect refreshers. Level IIIs and team leads build and assign scenario sets, benchmark crews objectively and identify coverage gaps.

Can trainees practise radiographic interpretation?

Yes. RT scenarios cover exposure setup and image interpretation on weld geometries, with no radiation source involved. That lets trainees build interpretation skill safely. Real radiography in Virginia is still performed under a license from the state Radioactive Materials Program and the employer’s radiation safety procedures.

Is it useful for aviation maintenance roles at Fort Eustis or around Hampton?

As practice, yes. The Aircraft Hangar environment has 54 jobs on airframe and component inspection, with ET and UT the most relevant methods. It does not replace any military or civil aviation maintenance training requirement or procedure.

How do we arrange a demo?

Use the Practical NDT demo request and tell us whether your focus is shipbuilding and fabrication, aviation, or mixed industrial inspection. Demos are online and suit a single inspector or a large team.

Explore more: Practical NDT overview, NDT training and certification, consulting services, Atlantis ERP, Digital Twins, request a demo.