Powered by a 200hp Austro-Daimler engine, it was a development of the earlier Va.53.2. As it's predecessor, it was armed with two schwarzlose machine-guns buried into the fuselage, making it unaccessible to the pilot and it could also support a cowling around the engine in order to keep it heated during winter operations. That cowling proved to be very effective, specially in the eastern Austro-Hungarian front were the Russian winter proved to be very harsh. Some pilots also removed the propeller spinner because it was prone to falling off in flight.
From the 112th airplane of this series until the production was switched on to the better powered Oeffag Va.253, a new variant with a rounded nose was introduced that eliminated the spinner. This variant proved to be more effective than the standard one when, in the wind-tunnel tests it achieved a top speed of 14 km/h faster than the standard one.
The Austro-Hungarian top-ace, Godwin Brumowski, flew this airplane and he copied the German Red Baron Manfred von Richtoffen by copying his red Fokker Dr.I. with the addition of a skull.
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