Company officials merged their respective organizations, the
Wright Company and the first
Glenn L. Martin Company, in September 1916. The company continued and escalated the
Wright brothers patent war with other aircraft manufacturers, until its resolution—under duress from the government, in 1917, at the start of U.S. involvement in
World War I—by the
cross-licensing agreement developed and managed through the
Manufacturers Aircraft Association. Martin resigned in 1917, dissolving the Wright-Martin joint enterprise within a year. The company manufactured a license-built version of the
Hispano-Suiza 8 under the engineering leadership of
Henry M. Crane. It was used by
Vought VE-7,
Vought VE-8,
Boeing NB-2, and
Loening M-8. By 1918, the company had a factory in
Long Island City, New York. The company was renamed
Wright Aeronautical in 1919, and shifted from manufacturing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft engines, developing the pivotal
Wright Whirlwind engines which changed aviation dramatically. ==Aircraft==