In 1918, Virginius E. Clark, in charge of the Plane Design section of the U.S. Army Air Service's Engineering Division and Alfred V. Verville, who had recently joined the Engineering Division from private industry, started design of a single-seat fighter (known as "pursuit" aircraft to the U.S. Army), the VCP-1 (Verville-Clark Pursuit).

[2] The VCP-1 was powered by a Wright-built 300 hp (220 kW) Hispano-Suiza 8 V-8 engine and had tapered single-bay biplane wings.

[1] The aircraft demonstrated good performance, reaching 156 mph (251 km/h), but the radical annular radiator was unsuccessful, having to be replaced to a more conventional unit.

[3][5] In 1920, work commenced on two new fighter aircraft based on the VCP-1, featuring an easier to build fabric covered steel-tube fuselage instead of the plywood monocoque of the VCP-1.

[4][10] It was taken back to the U.S. and quickly modified with a larger radiator for entry in the Pulitzer Trophy air-race, held at Mineola, New York on 25 November that year.