Alfred V. Verville - Glendale, CA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Alfred Verville, like many pioneers in aviation, showed an early interest in flight, even as a young boy growing up in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Having obtained a degree in electrical engineering, he worked briefly for a couple of automobile manufacturers in Detroit. But his desire to become a pilot led him to apply to the Glenn Curtiss flight school in Hammondsport, NY. Curtiss was more impressed by Verville’s engineering skills than by his piloting skills and hired him on as a draftsman and designer. Thus began Verville’s long and productive career as an aircraft designer.

Fred Verville is credited with the design of about twenty different commercially successful aircraft including a flying boat and several early passenger planes. But his most significant design was the 1922 R-3 Army racer. Built by the Sperry Corporation of New York, this plane won prizes and broke speed records and was the forerunner of World War II-era fighters.

The R-3 was the direct result of a demand made by General Billy Mitchell of the U.S. Army Air Corps to produce “tomorrow’s plane today, and I don’t want any d---d squirrel cages.” By squirrel cage he meant the ubiquitous spars and guy wires present on the biplanes of that era. Verville was working with Mitchell at that time and had just completed a tour of European aircraft facilities. The low mono-wing design of the R-3 looked a lot more like the fighters of World War II than the biplanes of World War I.

In 1961, Popular Mechanics magazine published an article called “The Twelve Most Significant Aircraft of All Time.” Making the list was Alfred Verville’s R-3 Army racer. According to the article, the Verville-Sperry Racer “typified an era when designers tried, with very little money, to get maximum performance from the minimum airplane. Its clean lines, thick low wing and retractable landing gear were amazingly prophetic of World War II fighters.”

Alfred V. Verville has also been honored on a U.S. postage stamp. The 1985 issue featured a portrait of Verville superimposed over the design of his R-3 racer.
(Sources: wikipedia.com)

Description: Alfred Verville’s cremated remains are located in the in the Holly Terrace (Columbarium of Adoration) of the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Date of birth: 11/16/1890 Date of death: 03/10/1970 Area of notoriety: Science/Technology Marker Type: Other Setting: Indoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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