Named the USS Kearsarge, this battleship/aircraft carrier hybrid, based on a 1937 plan developed for the U.S. Navy by the firm of Gibbs and Cox, could potentially have seen service during World War II (see Figure 1). The ship was originally commissioned by the Soviet government and the U.S. Navy only showed interest later to keep the Soviets from obtaining such a powerful warship. Those plans were abandoned when the emphasis shifted to true aircraft carriers, and the hybrid ship was never built.