Before Joss Whedon ditched Zak Penn's screenplay and started from scratch, Captain America wasn't going to wake up until The Avengers (Whedon actually wrote the present day set bookmarks in Captain America: The First Avenger). Little is known about that original draft, but it would have opened with Steve Rogers running outside and discovering that he was hovering above New York City on the Helicarrier. Whedon wanted to make the iconic aircraft's big screen debut a little more dramatic though, forcing concept artists to almost completely redesign the Helicarrier in order for it to start out in the water before flying.
