The pilot sat in an open cockpit alongside the engine in the manner of the Fokker F.III, while a cabin inside the fuselage could seat 12 passengers.
Before the aircraft had even been built, the United States Army Air Service had bought two examples during a promotional visit to the country by Anthony Fokker.
The Army agreed to let Kelly have the aircraft specially modified to carry more fuel, and to install a connecting doorway between the cabin and cockpit so that he and fellow test-pilot Lieutenant John A. Macready could take turns flying and resting.
Kelly and Macready tried again on 3 November, but this time engine trouble forced an emergency landing near Indianapolis after 25 hours 30 minutes.
The following year, they made a long-duration flight over a closed circuit over Dayton, Ohio, remaining aloft for 36 hours, 14 minutes 8 seconds between 16 and 17 April.