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first worthwhile flight on November 13, 1914. This was followed by dual instruction from Smith on the new Martin Model TT. Springer continued working at Ford and kept up his flying practice until late 1915 when he left Ford to join Martin as a full time instructor. 

In August 1916 Martin moved east as a member of the newly formed Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation which took over his organization and the operation of his Los Angeles facilities, while Springer and Floyd Smith continued to teach many civilian and military students at the Martin flying school.

In the east Martin soon became frustrated with very little authority in the affairs of a large corporation, where the financial managers knew little about aviation, and practically no progress was made. As a result he resigned on August 17, 1917 and returned to Los Angeles. A month later a group of Cleveland, Ohio, business men financed Martin to form a new Glenn L. Martin Company and to provide a factory and flying field for World War I aircraft production. As a result Martin, Larry Bell and Springer all left for Cleveland where Donald Douglas soon joined them.

Together they produced the renowned World War I Martin Bomber with two Liberty engines, which at once proved to be an outstanding achievement. Springer did the test flying and made numerous cross-country trips with this large plane to demonstrate it at various military air fields. The development was too late for wartime production, then after the war aviation went into a slump.

Douglas left Martin for Los Angeles during the early summer of 1920 to try to start a new company of his own. It was not easy to get financing for an aviation venture, but wealthy local sportsman David R. Davis finally offered to finance Douglas to design and build a special plane capable of flying across the United States non-stop with Davis as a passenger. The deal was not what Douglas had hoped for but at least it was a start, so he accepted the offer. Davis wanted to be the first non-stop transcontinental air passenger. It was agreed to form the Davis-Douglas Airplane Company and build one airplane.

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