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wood mill as a shop where everyone 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 Libert-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 further exhaustive tests the Cloudster proved to be an excellent plan and easily met all requirements. By June all was ready to undertake the transcontinental flight.
One 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 2,400 miles away. All went well until the motor quit with a stripped timing gear, causing a forced landing at El Pas, 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, 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 a 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 in the 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