From rocket landing pads to self-driving boats, Louisiana shipbuilding has gone high tech

Louisiana’s shipbuilding industry is no stranger to innovation.

During World War II, Higgins Industries in New Orleans invented and manufactured the groundbreaking landing craft that helped ferry soldiers to shore and turn the tide of the war.

In the 1960s, brothers Lynn and Orin Dean built the first liftboats — capable of raising themselves on long legs to form a stable platform over the water — in St. Bernard Parish.

And for decades, industrial conglomerate Textron has been making hovercraft, which move over land and water on a cushion of air, in New Orleans East.

Now, this centuries-old craft is getting a boost from cutting-edge software, artificial intelligence and the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry to evolve in ways that legendary boatbuilder Andrew Higgins couldn't ha