The LC-EW was designed to an order from the industrialist George Horton, who had previously owned the sole Laird LC-AA, first flown in 1928.

Upper and lower wings were braced together with parallel pairs of wide spread, transverse, streamlined V-struts on each side.

[2][3][4] The LC-EW was powered by a 450 hp (340 kW), nine cylinder Pratt & Whitney Wasp C radial engine driving a two-bladed propeller and tightly enclosed under a long chord, NACA cowling, though bumped out over the rocker boxes to reduce its diameter.

Aft, the fuselage was an all-metal aluminium alloy structure with multiple frames, stiffeners and metal skin.

The ventilated, heated cabin had three windows on each side and was entered by a starboard-side door; its four passenger seats had safety belts.

[3] Its fixed, conventional landing gear, with a track of 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m), had short, vertical oleo legs encased in fairings at the ends of the inner section of the lower wings.