Today's "New" category on the Squadron website includes yet another 1/700 Essex-class carrier from Dragon: The Antietam. Here's the link: http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=DR7064
It appears to have the modernized island and angled deck - but not the hurricane bow. I gather it represents the ship as she appeared in the mid-fifties.
I'm certainly no expert on such matters, but to my layman's eye it looks like there's only one major Essex-class silhouette left for Dragon to cover: the "fully modernized" version with the angled deck and the hurricane bow. I realize there are lots of other variants in terms of hull length, radar suites, air groups, elevator shapes, etc. But one more kit would let the modeler demonstrate the evolution of that interesting and important class pretty effectively.
It strikes me as slightly ironic that one of the earliest plastic Essexes, the grand old one from Revell, represented the configuration that the "modern" companies are getting to last. But, lest we forget, the (I think) very first plastic aircraft carrier kit was that old fossil from Lindberg in WWII configuration, with its dozens of Hellcats, its cardboard hangar deck, and its twin rudders (which no real Essex-class ship ever had - but the underwater hull lines probably were still classified when that kit initially appeared).
Sheesh, how the hobby has changed. These are great times to be a modern warship modeler.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.