The USS United States, CVA-58, reflects the grandiose but finally impractical visions in naval aviation immediately after World War II. Amidst all the grandeur, a lead ship was conceptualized—the USS United States, a new class of supercarriers designed to handle long-range bombers with gigantic nuclear weapons of their time. Five days after laying the keel, the project was canceled, pointing out a major shift in the strategy of the Navy.
The USS United States had been conceived as a 65,000-ton vessel, 83,000 tons fully loaded, with a flush deck and no characteristic island rising above the flight deck. This would have given impressive space for large bombers, but it also created some practical difficulties. For one thing, if there was no island, where could the radar and other command and control facilities be placed? Instead, they would go on a specially fitted command ship cruiser.
This vessel was designed to have four aircraft elevators and four catapults. Its flight deck was axial, not angled. Maybe a dozen bombers and almost fifty fighters could have fitted in. There would be no room for the bombers except on the flight deck itself, which would have been extremely hazardous in bad weather, and during rough seas.
The ambitious design of the USS United States was impelled by Admiral Marc Mitscher’s need to have a warship at his disposal that could handle the newest and best aircraft available at the time. While the project adopted an innovative approach, it ran into strong opposition from the United States Air Force and tight financial constraints. The Air Force viewed the carrier as a threat to its monopoly on the means of delivering nuclear weapons, while the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in league with Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson, held that the primary function of the carrier would be to duplicate the effort of the Air Force.
The order for the USS United States was canceled; the fallout in the Navy was enormous. Secretary of the Navy John Sullivan resigned in protest, and the resultant “Revolt of the Admirals” had Admiral Louis Denfeld relieved from his duties as Chief of Naval Operations. While that program may have been killed, it would clear the way forward for more practical supercarrier designs, like the USS Forrestal, which came only five years later.
The USS United States represents one of the most interesting “what ifs” in naval history. To some, it was an opportunity lost; to others, a bullet dodged. Flush-flight deck design was the brainchild of the Art Deco movement and proved unsatisfactory for a carrier. From this flawed but ambitious project came the lessons learned for the future of naval aviation—the creation of more practical and effective supercarriers.