Tri-Motor Engine Over the Landscape (1925)

An over-the-shoulder air-to-air view looking past the spinning propeller and exposed cylinders of an aircraft engine down toward the landscape below. — Tri-Motor Engine Over the Landscape (1925) · Donald A. Hall Estate Collection

The three-engine Ford Tri-Motor was a major achievement in commercial aviation. Donald A. Hall took this photograph in 1925 while working as an aerodynamics engineer at the Ford Aviation Division, following the mysterious fire that destroyed the Stout aircraft. The Tri-Motor's utilitarian design stood in stark contrast to the sleek, highly aerodynamic profile of Spirit of St. Louis, which Hall would design just two years later in 1927.