The Davis-Douglas Company was formed in July 1920 to enable Donald Douglas to design and build an aircraft capable of non-stop flight coast-to-coast across the United States.

The resulting aircraft was the Cloudster, a single-bay equal-span biplane of wooden construction designed to carry payload of equivalent weight.

The Cloudster first flew on 24 February 1921, the aircraft broke the Pacific Coast altitude record by climbing 19,160 ft (5839 m) on 19 March that year, and attempted the coast-to-coast journey in June.

In 1923, the Cloudster was sold and modified for sightseeing flights, with two additional open cockpits and seats for five passengers replacing one of the fuel tanks.

It was subsequently used by a number of operators and flew beer to Tijuana, Mexico after the 1926 flood, before it made a forced landing in shallow water off the coast of Ensenada, Baja California in December 1926.