Donald A. Hall - 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. Donald Hall signed off on the inquiry. Ryan Airlines responded in the affirmative and after all the other potential manufacturers had said no, Charles A. Lindbergh finally traveled to San Diego 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 winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis, that the decision to go with Ryan Airlines would depend primarily on his estimate of the chief engineer, Donald Hall. He found a true partner in Donald Hall and the men at Ryan Airlines, so an agreement was finalized and the two men began working closely to design and construct the aircraft in only sixty days. History would be made in that short amount of time.

The final aircraft was known as the Ryan NYP (registration number N-X-211) which captured popular imagination as the Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927 by flying nonstop from New York to Paris. Charles A. Lindbergh would become a world wide celebrity because of this famous flight and aviation would become much more popular around the globe.

Hall left Ryan Airlines in 1929 after the company became Mahoney-Ryan Airlines and later relocated to St. Louis.