The VE-7 made history by being the first airplane to take off
from the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the converted coal ship
U.S.S Langley. On October 17, 1922, LCdr. Virgil C. (Squash)
Griffin made the first launch at the controls of the nimble
fighter that had originally been designed as a training plane.
The launching used a unique technique, described as follows by
RADM Tate, then a junior naval aviator: “We were operating just
north of the Tongue of the Shoe, seaward of the main channel
from Norfolk, Va. A trough about 6 feet long, set up on
sawhorses was rigged at the aft end of the flight deck. When the
tail skid of the VE-7 used in the test was placed in the trough,
she was in the flight attitude. We had no brakes, so the plane
was held down on the deck by a wire with a bomb release at the
end. This was attached to a ring in the landing gear. ‘Squash’
Griffin climbed in, turned up the Hispano Suiza engine to its
full 180 hp and gave the ‘go’ signal. The bomb release was
snapped and the Vought rolled