The prototype S.E.5 first fly in December 1916, and the deliveries of an improved version, the S.E.5A, which was started in March 1917.

For its pilots already in Europe, the North American Expeditionary Force purchased 38 S.E.5A aircraft from Great Britain, and in the U. S. the Govt placed orders with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motors Company. The truce halted production after Curtiss had completed only 1 S.E.5A, but fifty six more were constructed from parts shipped from Great Britain. In 1922 the Eberhart Steel Products Corp. Received a contract to reconstruct fifty of the regiment Air Service’s S.E.5A aircraft using 180-hp Wright-Hispano “E” engines. The regiment Air Service used these aircraft, redesignated the SE-5E, for sophisticated coaching. The museum purchased the SE-5E thru a contribution by the estate of Lt. Col. William C. Lambert, USAF Ret. A WWI ace with 21.5 victories, Lambert flew the S.E.5A as an Yank member of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. The Air Force Museum Foundation also helped buy the aeroplane. It is painted to represent an SE-5E of the 18th HQ Squadron, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C, in 1925.