Calling all USS United States CVA-58 fans!

[EJM]

Strange how this topic kinda got missed in this forum?
Anyway, Anyone here interested in what would have been the first of the "super carriers" - the USS United States, CVA-58, had it have been built in the late 1940's? Anyone here ever think about making a model of the proposed ship? There's not much information or pics on the Net, but what I've found is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_United_States_(CVA-58)
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-u ... /cva58.htm
http://www.steelnavy.com/CMP1030UnitedStatesBW.htm
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/usw ... cva58.html
http://navysite.de/cv/cv58.htm
http://www.zap16.com/zapnew/wp-content/ ... states.jpg
http://navysite.de/cv/us2.gif
http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0 ... .Large.jpg
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/de ... pAscending

EDIT: If anyone is having trouble getting the Wikipedia entry from the very first link, then don't worry. Wikipedia does have an entry on the carrier, but you might have to search a little for it.

[NukeMM]

My friend Don J. of Omaha scratch built a 1/720 model of CVA-58.

I wonder if Nektarios has a CVA-58 in his colleciton?

[Nektarios]

My friend Don J. of Omaha scratch built a 1/720 model of CVA-58.

I wonder if Nektarios has a CVA-58 in his colleciton?

Carl i do not have it yet but Ships and Co. will release it in the future. I ll build it then.

[EJM]

Those are some good pics. Thanks for sharing. One thing that puzzled me when I was searching references last night: Where's the bridge? In the second pic up above, Is that small round tower structure on the right side of the carrier near an aircraft catapult supposed to be a bridge? And what about radar and communications masts? I can partly understand if the designers during that time period wanted a futuristic look or an unobstructed flight deck, but if I were to build that ship, I know I'd probably want a better bridge and radar masts somewhere.

[Guest]

Re the question on the bridge: since I built the model, I will answer the question.

This version of the design had two retractable islands, one port and one starboard. On the model, you can see the starboard (right) side island in the raised position with the port side in the lowered position.

F7U's are carried for CAP; P2V's are strike aircraft; F2H Banshee's are the fighter cover for the bombers.

I found a lot of references for the United States, but I used an earlier design study as shown in Conways All the World's Fighting Ships as the pattern. As I was planning the project, I starting figuring all the things that needed to be fixed on the design and thought about doing a "active duty" model, but the more I tweaked, the more the design ended up looking like Forrestal, so I just switched back and built it like the drawing.

I'm going to add some pictures of my 1957 Forrestal to that discussion group.

[gtb -red]

hello gents, that US build is great looking. a fellow modeler on another website ask would i think about building a 1:350 version of this never builted ship. well i've been looking around and it might happen. first thing is finishing both scratchbuilted Supercarriers BigE and Saratoga. the latter is in a contest. so if any of you send or show some drawings or models of this ship it might get it's keel laid.

[Seasick]

I was looking at building a USS United States, I noticed that it resembled the very very early designs for the USS Forrestal. I decided that mine would be based on the idea that it would start being built to the original design and converted to angled deck near the end of construction. I was going to build an island on a waist catipult overhang, and extend the other for an angled deck. I have drawings, but I lost interest in doing it.

[Cliffy B]

Hey guys, came across this drawing of the CVB-58 while I was looking through my reference folders. It's from a Russian publication but no clue where I got it from on the net. It's very clean and concise, should prove helpful.

[Sr. Gopher]

This goes with one or two of my what if threads: What would happen if the entire US carrier history until the nimitz class was built with WWII technology, and served during the time period. Post your ideas about the USS America in action in the thread at the What If section ofthe forum. Can't wait to see answers!!!!!

[Lisle7@seanet.com]

Code: Select all

Yeah, I've built a kind of crude model of CVA -58. I do my own wooden ship models to relax from writing naval history

Lisle A. Rose
POWER AT SEA (3 vols)

[DennisJP]

Hey guys, came across this drawing of the CVB-58 while I was looking through my reference folders. It's from a Russian publication but no clue where I got it from on the net. It's very clean and concise, should prove helpful.

The drawing looks an awful lot like a Midway Class. Probably could be scratch built from a Midway class model?

[D-Boy]

Freetime Hobbies is announcing the planned release of the USS United States in 1:700 resin:

http://www.freetimehobbies.com/blogging ... ge-models/

[Seasick]

I suspect that if CVB-58 (later CVA-58) had continued in construction she would have like Oriskany been slowed down or suspended during construction to allow changes to be made. A fully angled deck would have been worked in to the design and an island incorporated. The ship is going to need an island. An air traffic control radar, and search radars:
AN/SPS-6 and AN/SPS-29.