Harcum resident Ted Williams has been building ship models for the Navy for over 30 years. However, his interest in model shipbuilding has stretched through most of his life.

Williams has spent his career on design teams for full-size ships and is a degreed Naval Architect. From time to time, between models, Williams designs and builds boats, such as the 17-foot electric picnic boat he built for Karen, his wife, a few years ago.

Williams’s most recent creation, a model of the U.S.S. Arleigh Burke, DDG-51, Guided Missile Destroyer, was the first U.S. Navy ship to incorporate sloped surface geometry as a stealth measure to make radar detection more difficult.

He said the DDG-51 is the lead ship of the Burke Class and was designed in the mid- to late-1980s. There are currently 65 of them in the fleet, with nine more planned for production. Williams said the ships may frequently be seen at the Yorktown ammunition piers.

According to Williams, the DDG-51 design’s prima...