Hall X-1 Frontal Engine Run-Up on Camp Kearny Field (1928)

Direct frontal view of the Hall X-1 prototype on a dirt runway with another aircraft taxiing and kicking up dust in the background. — Hall X-1 Frontal Engine Run-Up on Camp Kearny Field (1928) · Donald A. Hall Estate Collection

Positioned directly on the runway centerline, Donald A. Hall Sr. captured the Hall X-1 prototype during an engine run-up on the Camp Kearny dirt strip. The composition highlights the aircraft's two-blade wooden propeller, low-wing dihedral, and wide-track undercarriage, while another airplane taxis in the background, sending a plume of dust across the arid Southern California mesa. The negative documents the active testing environment where Hall empirically proved his stall-resistant tandem lifting-surface theory.