A depiction of a Heinrich Pursuit VII (P-18 is its USAAC designation) of the 94th "Hat in the Ring" Squadron flying over Lake St. Clair off of Pointe Grosse; the Heinrich Pursuit VII was distinguished by its high-frame gulf wing design, similar to the Polish-Lithuanian CWL WZ.24, the Serbian Ikarus IK-2, and several French monoplanes from the early-to-mid 1930s, such as the ANF Les Mureaux 180. It was a predominately fabric-and-wood airplane, in contrast to its contemporary fighter, the Curtiss P-23 Jayhawker, which was mostly metallic with the exception of its wings. Entering USAAC service in 1935, the Pursuit VII, nicknamed the Albatross for its distinct wing design, was overshadowed by the well-loved Curtiss aircraft and wasn't as widely exported as a result. With the arrival of monoplane fighters such as Curtiss's P-36 Mohawk and Orenco's P-27 Amphiptere in 1938, the Albatross was considered obsolescent and so, it was relegated to Observation squadrons throughout the USAAC's stations as well as to those Pursuit squadrons stationed at Haida, Puerto Rico, and Costa Negres by the Fall of 1939. Those Albatrosses that did see active combat service often fared poorly due to being outclassed by most of the French fighters they came across, although they did see some service in China against the invading Japanese.

The aircraft depicted here is stationed at McConnell Airfield, located northeast of Detroit and along the lake shoreline, which is heavily monitored by the Armed Forces after the Great War saw some fighting in the lake itself before Windsor was seized in a weeks-long urban battle in November 1914.

The idea I had for this drawing came about after reading about how Curtiss dominated US military aircraft production and design in the Interwar period, which made me wonder how would USAAC procurement be as a result of demands during the Great War for a constant string of aircraft. I imagine some of the companies who issued designs to the Army Air Service, such as Heinrich and Orenco, would have been able to win numerous Army contracts for planes and thus make US military planes in this time a bit more diverse. Curtiss would still be a leading force in domestic aircraft design at this time, though it would be more akin to how prevalent Hawker and Messerschmitt were in their respective home countries' aircraft industries in the 1930s. Also, I may have fowled up a lot trying to draw the pilot, since I had no real clue on how to position him. Guess next time I draw one of these, I'll have to find pictures off of Google or whatever as reference instead.