Vought VE-8

The Vought VE-8 was a single-seat biplane fighter that the Lewis and Vought Corporation of Long Island, New York, designed at the end of the First World War as a more powerful development of its VE-7 trainer. One account describes it as a modified VE-7 built around a 300 horsepower Hispano engine, with a heavier nose and landing gear to carry the extra weight, a top wing set very close to the fuselage with a wooden fairing filling the centre section, and an outline that resembled the French SPAD. A second account of the VE-7 family says the completed aircraft had a 340 horsepower Wright-Hispano H engine, two Vickers guns and a smaller span. Test pilots reported that it was overweight, sluggish and tail heavy, with heavy controls and poor directional stability. Four were ordered by the United States Army Air Service, but only two were built, one for static testing and one for flight tests, and a much larger Army order for the type was cancelled when the war ended.