Length: 30"

The third USS America (CV-66), formerly CVA-66, was a Kitty Hawk class supercarrier of the United States Navy that served from 1965 to 1996. Originally ordered as an Enterprise-class nuclear carrier, the ballooning costs of Enterprise during construction caused the cancellation of the nuclear CVAN-66 and her reordering as a conventionally-powered Kitty Hawk-class carrier.[citation needed] She was laid down on 1 January 1961 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp.; launched on 1 February 1964, sponsored by Mrs. David L. McDonald, wife of Admiral David L. McDonald, the Chief of Naval Operations; and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 23 January 1965, Captain Lawrence Heyworth, Jr., in command.