The company's trainer was patterned after successful European designs; for instance, the engine was a Wright Hispano Suiza of the type used by the French Spads.

It was a single-seater, the front cockpit being faired over and a .30 in (7.62 mm) Vickers machine gun mounted over it on the left side and synchronized to fire through the propeller.

[2] The VE-8 variant completed in July 1919 had a 340hp Wright-Hispano H engine, reduced overall dimensions, increased wing area, a shorter faired cabane, and two Vickers guns.

A VE-7 flown by Lieutenant Virgil C. Griffin made history on October 17, 1922, when it took off from the deck of the newly commissioned carrier Langley.

[5] Data from Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War I by Michael John Haddrick Taylor (Random House Group Ltd. 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, 2001, ISBN 1-85170-347-0), 320 pp.General characteristics Performance Armament