Donald Albert Hall (December 7, 1898 – May 2, 1968) was an American pioneering

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

and aircraft designer who is most famous for having designed the ''

Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlant ...

''. Hall was also part of the three-person team that discovered that the crack of a

bullwhip A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather or nylon, designed as a tool for working with livestock or competition. Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country. A bullwhip's leng ...

is a

sonic boom A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to t ...

Early years

Hall was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York on December 7, 1898. He attended the Manual Training High School in Brooklyn, and graduated from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

with a certificate in Industrial Mechanical Engineering in 1917.

Aviation career

From 1919 to 1921, Donald Hall worked for the

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades ...

as a junior draftsman, checker, and then designer. From 1921 to 1922, he was the aerodynamic design and acting chief engineer at Elias & Brothers. He moved to Santa Monica, California in 1924 to work for

Douglas Aircraft The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

. He left Douglas Aircraft in 1926, briefly worked for the airplane division of

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

, and then became an aviation cadet in the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

, but did not become a military pilot. He then returned to Douglas Aircraft, and joined Ryan Airlines in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

on 31 January 1927 as a full-time chief engineer and parts inspector, three weeks before

Charles A. Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

visited the company to inquire about designing the ''Spirit of St. Louis''.

The ''Spirit of St. Louis''

Only days later, Ryan Airlines received an inquiry from Robertson Aircraft Corp. of St. Louis asking if they could design and build an aircraft capable of flying nonstop from New York to Paris. Ryan Airlines responded in the affirmative and after all the other potential manufacturers had said no, Charles Lindbergh finally traveled to San Diego on 21 February 1927 to inspect the Ryan Airlines facility. There he met Donald Hall for the first time. After touring the facility with the new owner Benjamin Franklin Mahoney, Lindbergh met and discussed the project with Donald A. Hall in his second story office. Lindbergh wanted to decide if the company could really deliver on the proposed aircraft. Lindbergh later stated in his

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winning 1953 book, ''

The Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlanti ...

'', that he chose Ryan Airlines in part because he believed in Hall's ability. The two men began working closely to design and construct the aircraft in only sixty days, from 28 February 1927 to 28 April 1927 when the first flight tests started. Upon the request of Charles Lindbergh, Donald Hall intentionally left the aircraft slightly unstable to help keep its aviator awake. The final aircraft was known as the Ryan NYP (registration number N-X-211) which captured popular imagination as the ''

'' in May 1927 by flying nonstop from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and winning

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

the

Orteig Prize The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29. Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the rela ...

. The famous flight made Lindbergh an instant worldwide celebrity and aviation became much more popular around the globe because of it. Hall left Ryan Airlines in 1929 after the company became Mahoney-Ryan Airlines and later relocated to St. Louis.

Later career

From 1929 to 1936, he developed Hall Aeronautical Research and Development Company, and designed and built the Hall X-1. This was a tandem wing design for which Hall held the patent. He closed this company due to financial problems, and joined Consolidated Vultee Aircraft/Convair as an aerodynamics and pre-design engineer. He was involved in the design of the

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

bomber. He was discharged by Consolidated (then known as Convair) during the defense cutbacks following World War Two. In 1952, he became head of the Navy's helicopter division at North Island, San Diego. He worked there in research until 1963.

Bullwhip breaking the sound barrier

In 1958, he was part of a team, along with Barry Bernstein and

Horace M. Trent Horace Maynard Trent (December 20, 1907 – December 16, 1964) was an American physicist best known for being part of the team that found that the crack of a bullwhip was actually a sonic boom. He is also the author of the currently accepted forc ...

, that made the discovery of what causes a bullwhip's crack. At the time, it was thought to be caused by leather in the tip smacking against other leather as it curled back in on itself. Bernstein, Trent, and Hall proved that it was really the whip exceeding the sound barrier.

Death

Donald Hall died of a heart attack on 2 May 1968 and was survived by his wife and only son. The ''New York Times'' and other major newspapers wrote extended obituaries for him once his death was publicly announced. Years later, his grandson Nova Hall found a trunk in his garage that belonged to his grandfather Donald Hall, and which contained all the documents that were used to design the ''Spirit of St. Louis''.

Other tenures

* 1937-1968: Associate Fellow at the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

(AIAA)

In popular culture

Arthur Space Charles Arthur Space (October 12, 1908 – January 13, 1983) was an American film, television and stage actor. He was best known as Doc Weaver, the veterinarian, in thirty-nine episodes of the CBS television series ''Lassie''. Early years Born ...

played Hall in the 1957 film ''

''.

Publications

* ''Technical Preparation of the Spirit of St. Louis - Technical Note #257'', National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), 1927

References

* Hall, Donald A. ''Technical Preparation of the Airplane "Spirit of St. Louis" N.A.C.A. Technical Note #257''. Washington: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, July 1927
Spirit
Access date: 2007-05-18. * Hall, Nova S. ''Spirit and Creator: The Mysterious Man Behind Lindbergh's Flight to Paris''. Sheffield, MA: ATN Publishing, 2002. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Donald A. American aerospace engineers 1968 deaths 1898 births 20th-century American engineers