USS United States (CVA-58) was to be the
lead ship of a new design of
aircraft carrier. On 29 July 1948, President
Harry Truman approved construction of five "
supercarriers", for which funds had been provided in the Naval Appropriations Act of 1949. The
keel of the first of the five planned postwar carriers was laid down on 18 April 1949 at
Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. The program was canceled,
United States was not completed, and the other four planned carriers were never built. Nevertheless, USS
United States is the ancestor of all U.S. supercarriers.