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In 1925 Driggs formed the Driggs Aircraft Corporation at Dayton and Conover became his Shop Superintendent. In rented shop space they started a re-design of the Johnson "Bumble Bee" which they called the "Driggs-Dart." Of the same general configuration, it embodied many improvements and was powered by a Wright-Morehouse 2-cylinder opposed aircraft engine. *

In May, 1926, Driggs [[strikethrough]] formed the Driggs [[/strikethrough]] sold a "Dart" plane to the Air Service with a special wing equipped with leading edge slots and flaps for research test work at McCook Field. Following this special commercial monoplane was designed and built for Captain Eddie Rickenbacker of Detroit. Know as the "Rickenbacher Coupe" it was a two-place side-by-side cabin plane with a folding high-wing. Its engine was the new Rickenbacker 5-cylinger 65 h.p. AIR CAT radial. After brief tests at Dayton in September, that plane was flown to Detroit by Driggs pilot Jack Laass. A second Driggs "Dart" monoplane was flown by Laass in the Air Tours and National Air Races that year. Late that year Driggs decided to make a light 2-seat tandem dual-control training biplane. Called the "Dart II" it was powered by a 3-cylinder 35 h.p. Anzani engine. It proved successful and two of them were built.

As a result, in March, 1927, Driggs moved his company to his hometown of Lansing, Michigan, and Conover went along as his Factory Superintendent. There the Driggs-Conover team intensified their operations. After subsequent developments, the "Driggs-Skylark" biplane was brought out, a fine well-built 2-seat tandem machine of exceptional flying qualities. A substantial number of these were built and the future of the company seemed assured until the depression in 1930 when the firm was forced out of business.

In 1931 Conover became employed by Waco Aircraft Corporation at Troy, Ohio, where he later advanced to Factory Superintendent. He remained there until after World War II when the plant closed.

*Designed by the author of these biographies, Harold E. Morehouse.

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