Alfred Victor Verville was an aviation pioneer and aircraft designer responsible for a number of important innovations in aircraft design, including welded-steel-frame fuselages and retractable landing gear. He began work with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co in 1914 and by the end of WW1 had worked for a number of manufacturers, including Thomas-Morse Co (1915), General Airplane Co (1915-17), and Fisher Body Corp Airplane Division (1917-18).

In 1918 he became involved in military aviation at the Army Air Service Engineering Division at McCook Field OH (1918-25). He co-founded the Buhl-Verville Aircraft Co (1925-27) before striking out on his own with the Verville Aircraft Co (1928-31). Through the ’30s and ’40s he was a consultant at the Bureau of Air Commerce (1932, 1939-41) and Department of Commerce (1933-36), at Douglas Aircraft (1937-38), at Curtiss-Wright (1941-42), at Snead Aircraft (1942), and at Drexel Aviation Co (1942-45). In 1945 he served as a member of the Naval Technical Mission to Europe and later joined the USN’s Bureau of Aeronautics (1946-61). He retired in 1961, but continued to support aviation until his death.