The design of the Model 15 was based on studies of the Fokker D.VII,[1] of which 142 were brought back to the U.S. for evaluation as part of the Armistice Agreement ending World War I.

[3] The XPW-9 competed with the Curtiss Model 33 for contracts for a pursuit aircraft to replace the Thomas-Morse MB-3A in the United States Army Air Service.

The Air Service preferred the PW-9, which outperformed the PW-8 in all performance aspects except speed, and was built on a more rugged and easier to maintain design, ordering 113 aircraft (only 25 PW-8s were procured).

[4] Boeing delivered a total of 114 PW-9s of all variants including prototypes to the United States Army Air Corps between 1925 and February 1931.

They were upgraded to 525 hp (391 kW) Packard 2A-1500 engines, and sported a row of hooks on the bottom of the axle, used to guide the plane via cables on the deck.

The FB-5 first flew October 7, 1926 and was delivered to the Navy beginning in the following January, carried on barges in Puget Sound from Boeing's factory to Langley anchored in Seattle's harbor.