The Verville Aircraft Company was a

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

based manufacturer of small airplanes and flying boats, which became bankrupt during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Alfred V. Verville started the corporation after working for multiple aviation companies. An innovative corporation, it could not survive the difficult financial crisis of the early 1930s. The Verville Aircraft Company was located at 4815 Cabot Street, Detroit, Michigan, occupying the former Rickenbacker plant. Verville Aircraft was organized by

Walter Briggs, Sr. Walter Owen Briggs Sr. (February 27, 1877 – January 17, 1952) was an American entrepreneur and professional sports owner. He was part-owner of the Detroit Tigers in Major League Baseball from to , and then sole owner from 1935 to his death in ...

, president and chairman of

Briggs Manufacturing Company Briggs Manufacturing was an American, Detroit-based manufacturer of automobile bodies for Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation and other U.S. and European automobile manufacturers. In 1953 it was bought by Chrysler Corporation without its fo ...

.''Verville Aircraft Company''
Wall Street Journal, August 7, 1928, pg. 15. Barney Everett (Everitt) served as the president of the company. The treasurer was S. E. Poole.

History

First Airplane

The first dedicated passenger plane that Verville Aircraft produced was the Verville Air Coach. Verville-air-coach

After being acquired by Briggs, the manufacturer produced a light plane followed by the construction of two others. The following designers worked for Verville Aircraft: * Louis G. Meister * Edgar A. Goff, Jr. * Peter Altman * Myron E. Zeller * Charles S. Knight (test pilot). Home.earthlink.net (1930-04-26). Retrieved on 2009-08-29. Copy of Packard Inner Circle, Detroit Mich., April 26, 1930

Insolvency

A judge in the

chancery court The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equ ...

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

appointed a receiver for the firm in December 1931.''Verville Aircraft to Receiver'',

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

, January 1, 1932, pg. 4.

Aircraft

* Verville Air Coach * Verville Sport Trainer AT

References

External links

{{Verville Air * Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Privately held companies based in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Detroit 1928 establishments in Michigan 1932 disestablishments in Michigan

Verville Aircraft Verville is a French and French Canadian surname which could mean: # ''towards the town'', from the French words ', meaning "towards", and ', meaning "town"; or # ''green town'', from the French ', meaning "green", and ', meaning "town". It can a ...