CVA-01

	Official drawing of the CVA-01
Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Audacious-class fleet carrier; Centaur-class light carrier;
Succeeded by	Invincible class
Planned	4
Cancelled	4
General characteristics
Displacement	54,500 long tons (55,400 t); 63,000 long tons (64,000 t) at full load;
Length	925 ft (282 m)
Beam	184 ft (56 m)
Draught	33 ft (10 m)
Propulsion	6 Admiralty boilers with 3 Parsons steam turbines providing 135,000 hp (101,000 kW) to three shafts
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h)
Range	7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km)
Complement	3,250 plus airgroup
Armament	1 twin Sea Dart Guided Weapon System 30 launcher, 4 × Sea Cat GWS 20
Armour	unspecified for side and underwater protection
Aircraft carried	Up to 50 aircraft, with the planned airgroup having 18 × Phantom FG.1; 18 × Buccaneer S.2; 4 × Gannet AEW.3; 4 × Sea King HAS.1; 2 × Wessex HAS.1 (SAR), probably with 1 × Gannet COD.4
Aviation facilities	2 catapults (reduced from 4), 2 lifts, 1 hangar 650 ft (200 m) by 80 ft (24 m)

CVA-01 was a proposed United Kingdom aircraft carrier, designed during the 1960s. The ship was intended to be the first of a class that would replace all of the Royal Navy's carriers, most of which had been designed before or during the Second World War. CVA-01 and CVA-02 were intended to replace HMS Victorious and HMS Ark Royal, while CVA-03 and CVA-04 would have replaced HMS Hermes and HMS Eagle respectively.

The planned four carrier class was soon reduced to three before further being reduced to two and finally, following a government review, in the form of the 1966 Defence White Paper, the project was cancelled, along with the proposed Type 82 destroyer class, which were intended primarily as escorts for carrier groups. Factors contributing to the cancellation of CVA-01 included inter-service rivalries, the huge costs of the proposed carrier, and the technical complexity and difficulties it would have presented in construction, operation, and maintenance.

Had CVA-01 and CVA-02 been built, it is likely they would have been named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Duke of Edinburgh respectively.

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