Alfred Verville

Front:
USAirmail 33 Alfred V. Verville SITY Aviation Pioneler FEB 13 1985 11530 70 NY GARD

Back:
ALFRED VERVILLE First Day of Issue: February 13, 1985 First Issue Location: Garden City, New York Alfred Verville was one of the brightest designers of early airplanes in this country. In 1914, at the age of twenty- four, Verville was so impressed by a daredevil flying demonstration that he left his secure job as a designer at Hudson Motor Company and plunged headlong into aviation. By 1918, Alfred Verville's fame as a brilliant aeronautics designer had grown ... and he was asked by the United States Army Air Corps to help redesign some of America's wartime airplanes. The result was the Verville VCP racer, a powerful biplane which obtained an estimated speed of 190 miles-per-hour. Later Verville designed the famed R-3 racer for the Army Air Corps — a sleek and fast airplane and the first American plane to feature such innovations as a retractable landing gear. The unique and innovative design of Verville's R-3 later led to some of the most famous fighter planes of World War II. In honor of this great American aviation pioneer, the United States Postal Service issued the stamp featured on this Maximum Card. No. 85-8 ©1985 The Maximum Card Collection A Division of Unicover Corporation . Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 Original painting by John Benson.