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Space was rented in the rear of a barber shop as a drafting room and office. Douglas wrote to Cleveland in an effort to induce five former aircraft mechanics to join the venture and all accepted. Then shortly afterward Springer also came. Space was leased on the second floor of a downtown wood mill as a shop where every one started making parts, including Springer.

When completed the component parts and subassemblies were taken to the Goodyear Blimp Hangar at South Park where the plane was assembled. Called the "Cloudster" it was a large, well designed biplane with excellent workmanship, powered by a Liberty-12 engine. It was designed to carry 650 gallons of gas, pilot and passenger. Springer made the initial flight with this plane on February 24, 1921. On futher exhaustive tests the Cloudster proved to be an excellent plane and easily met all requirements. By June all was ready to undertake teh transcontinental flight.

On June 27 Springer and DAvis took off from March Field, Riverside, California, with a full load of gas, hoping to land at Curtiss Field, Long Island, New York, thirty hours later and 2500 miles away. All went well until the motor quit with a stripped timing gear, casuing a forced landing at El Paso, Texas. With a new gear the plane was flown back to March Field for another start. There, while waiting for a new heavier timing gear, Kelly and McCready completed their east-west flight in a single engine Fokker monoplane.

Davis was downhearted and offered the "Cloudster" for sale, following which he withdrew his financial support of the Davis-Douglas Company. The "Cloudster" had established some new standards, it being the first plane on record capable of carrying a load equal to its own weight.

Douglas was so enthusiastic over the "Cloudster's" design-efficiency that he immediately developed Naval Torpedo version of the "Cloudster" on twin-floats. The navy was interested and gave him an order for three planes. With this he was able to get new financing and was on his way to great renown int he aircraft business. This Navy order was followed by eighteen more, then increased to thirty-eight. Out of this came the Army's Round-the-World planes which again were of similar design. The Army ordered one, a land plane, with which

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