The Mysterious Man Behind Lindbergh’s Flight to Paris

“The truth will come out eventually”. – Donald A. Hall, 40th Anniversary May 1967

Inside the cracked and weathered exterior of an old steamer trunk, a family secret was waiting to be discovered. In 1999 Nova Hall, grandson of Donald A. Hall, uncovered a locked World War I era steamer trunk in his family’s garage. The trunk held a collection of more than 100 never-before-seen photographs, personal correspondence with Charles A. Lindbergh, original documents, design instruments, models, negatives, and film footage. Through those “treasures” archived by Donald A. Hall, we discover the mysterious man behind Lindbergh’s historic flight to Paris. This book is a visually inspiring story of their teamwork and triumph.

It all began in late February 1927 when chief engineer Donald A. Hall first met the young aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. What Lindbergh proposed was not only controversial, but seemingly impossible. All who had attempted the Atlantic crossing by air were lost or had died on the runway. Nevertheless, these two strangers came to trust each other. Sixty days later, their concept of a trans-Atlantic flight became reality in the form of a specialized aircraft that only Lindbergh could fly.