The Dayton-Wright Company was formed in 1917, on the declaration of war between the United States and Germany,[1] by a group of Ohio investors that included Charles F. Kettering and Edward A.

[4] When the war began, Deeds was commissioned and put in charge of procurement for the Aircraft Production Board.

He divested himself of his financial interest in Dayton-Wright but awarded the company two contracts to produce more than 4,000 DH-4 and Standard SJ-1 aircraft.

A United States Senate committee corroborated these allegations, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission headed by future Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes to investigate.

In 1920, Milton C. Baumann designed the RB-1 racer,[6] with solid balsa wood wing,[7] enclosed cockpit, and retractable landing gear linked to rod-operated leading and trailing-edge camber-changing flaps.