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The Donald A. Hall-designed Spirit of St. Louis, at the National Air and Space Museum. Copyrighted image by Ad Meskens, used with permission, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Finding Lindbergh treasures changed man’s course

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
The Donald A. Hall-designed Spirit of St. Louis, at the National Air and Space Museum. Copyrighted image by Ad Meskens, used with permission, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Donald A. Hall-designed Spirit of St. Louis, at the National Air and Space Museum. Copyrighted image by Ad Meskens, used with permission, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

PHOENIX (AP) – Nova Hall was cleaning out his garage in Sedona 13 years ago when he discovered an old steamer trunk with his grandfather’s initials on it. It was a treasure trove.

The trunk contained blueprints drawn by his grandfather Donald A. Hall of the Spirit of St. Louis, the airplane in which legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh flew the first-ever solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris in 1927. To do that, he needed a special aircraft, one that would fit his 6-foot-3 frame. In the trunk were photographs of his grandfather and Lindbergh in their mid-20s, as well as letters and notes the pair exchanged regarding the aircraft.

A collection of his grandfather’s photos documented the manufacturing and assembly of the Spirit of St. Louis, which was built for $6,000 by Ryan Airlines Corp. in San Diego. Donald Hall was the chief engineer and designer there.

Until that day in his old garage, Hall said he had always thought his grandfather, who died before he was born, was one of several engineers behind the famous aircraft.

“My grandfather never told his story,” said Hall, now 35 and a recent Arizona State University graduate. “Little did I know that that was going to be my story as well.”

That discovery in Sedona was life changing for Hall, who now lives in Phoenix.

He eventually ditched his longtime ambition of becoming a U.S. ambassador to instead use art to spread his grandfather’s untold story and reignite a lagging passion for science and innovation among the nation’s youth.

Hall said if his grandfather and Lindbergh accomplished that much without technology, imagine what youths today could do if science and math was more encouraged.

“They (Hall and Lindbergh) had done it when everyone had said they were insane,” yet they changed history, Hall told The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/AtOXBy).

Like his grandfather, Hall too has been discouraged by others.

“I was always told I can’t make a living as an artist,” he said. “But I realized how significant for me personally it was looking into my history and how that was impacting my choices for my life.”

Some of the trunk’s treasures were on display as part of Hall’s art exhibit at the ASU West campus.

Hall calls his exhibit part museum, art show, performance space and educational workshop. The exhibit includes paintings he created in multiple mediums, particularly acrylic painting.

Called “Flying Over Time,” the exhibit was considered the highlight of the Ex-STATIC—Excellence in Science, Technology And Team-based Interdisciplinary Creativity—event.

Ex-STATIC is part of the Arizona SciTech Festival, a collaboration between ASU, the Arizona Science Center and the Arizona Technology Council, which is holding workshops, exhibitions, concerts and tours statewide through next month to showcase Arizona as a national leader in science, technology and innovation.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-02-26-12 1933GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

The Donald A. Hall-designed Spirit of St. Louis, at the National Air and Space Museum. Copyrighted image by Ad Meskens, used with permission, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Donald A. Hall-designed Spirit of St. Louis, at the National Air and Space Museum. Copyrighted image by Ad Meskens, used with permission, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.