Hall-Aluminum Aircraft

Order of Battle · Aircraft manufacturers · United States

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft Corporation

The son of the man who made aluminium cheap built the US Navy’s last biplane patrol boats out of it, and Coast Guard crews flew them on rescue and anti-submarine patrols into 1944.

1927Founded
Defunct 1940Status
7Aircraft on record
1Air forces flying its types
CountryUnited StatesFounded1927FoundersCharles Ward HallHeadquartersBristol, PennsylvaniaStatusDefunct 1940
The story

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft: the company and the aircraft that made its name

Aluminium in the blood

Charles Ward Hall was the son of Charles Martin Hall, who had invented the process for mass-producing aluminium and founded the firm that became Alcoa. The son made aluminium aircraft. After experimental work that included an all-metal version of the Curtiss TS-1 fighter, he founded the Hall-Aluminum Aircraft company in Buffalo, New York, in 1927, and by 1934 had moved into the former Keystone Aircraft plant at Bristol, Pennsylvania. His structures used flanged closed aluminium tubing and monocoque fuselages.

The PH flying boats

Hall’s lasting product was the PH patrol flying boat. The XPH-1 first flew in December 1929, nine PH-1s went to Navy squadron VP-8 from 1932 until the PBY Catalina replaced them in 1937, and the Coast Guard bought seven PH-2s and seven PH-3s. These were the last biplane patrol aircraft in US service; after Pearl Harbor the Coast Guard armed them for anti-submarine patrols and flew them until 1944. Prototypes included the XFH-1 fighter, the XPTBH torpedo-bomber and the four-engine XP2H-1, which flew non-stop from Norfolk to Panama in 25 hours 15 minutes in 1935.

Monoped and Consolidated

Hall himself died on 21 August 1936, according to HistoryNet in the crash of his Monoped, an experimental single-wheel design. His company built 29 aircraft in about 15 years. In 1940 Consolidated Aircraft bought Hall-Aluminum, took its assets, patents and many of its staff, and dissolved the company. Among the 29 were two Curtiss-Hall F4C-1 fighters, all-aluminium versions of the TS-1 that weighed 300 pounds less than the wooden original. The last of the Navy’s PH-1s was surveyed in February 1941, after 2,121 flight hours.

The son of the man who made aluminium cheap built the US Navy’s last biplane patrol boats out of it, and Coast Guard crews flew them on rescue and anti-submarine patrols into 1944.Hall-Aluminum Aircraft · verified 2026-10-03
At a glance

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft in numbers

The company

In short
Founded 1927

  • Founded in Buffalo by Charles Ward Hall, son of Alcoa’s founder
  • Moved to the ex-Keystone plant at Bristol, Pennsylvania, by 1934
  • Bought and dissolved by Consolidated, 1940

Production

Best known for
Hall PH flying boat

  • 24 PH series for the Navy and Coast Guard
  • 29 aircraft in total
  • Prototypes XFH-1, XP2H-1, XPTBH

Today

Now
Defunct

  • Assets and patents absorbed by Consolidated

The numbers

PH flying boats built
24
Total aircraft built
29
PH-1 unit price
53,778 US dollars
The aircraft

Every notable Hall-Aluminum Aircraft aircraft

Aircraft Role First flight Built Status Note
Curtiss-Hall F4C-1 Fighter 2 Retired Aluminium version of the TS-1, 300 lb lighter
Hall XFH-1 Shipboard fighter 1929 1 Retired Watertight fuselage
Hall PH-1 Patrol flying boat 1929 9 Retired VP-8, San Diego; XPH-1 prototype flew December 1929
Hall PH-2 Coast Guard rescue flying boat 7 Retired
Hall PH-3 Coast Guard patrol flying boat 7 Retired Armed for anti-submarine patrols in WWII
Hall XP2H-1 Four-engine patrol flying boat 1932 1 Retired Norfolk to Panama non-stop, 25 h 15 min, 1935
Hall XPTBH-2 Torpedo-bomber floatplane 1 Retired Twin-float monoplane
Who flies them

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft aircraft in the world’s air forces

1 air forces in the Order of Battle fly or flew Hall-Aluminum Aircraft types. 0 of them still have one in service.

Air force In service Formerly flown
United States Coast Guard Aviation Hall PH-2/PH-3 and General Aviation PJ-1/2 flying boats
Places, people, records

Where Hall-Aluminum Aircraft built, who led it, what it achieved

Factories

  • Buffalo works · Buffalo, New York — Founding location, 1927
  • Bristol works · Bristol, Pennsylvania — Former Keystone Aircraft plant, by 1934

People

  • Charles Ward Hall · founder, engineer — Son of Alcoa founder Charles Martin Hall

Records and firsts

  • XP2H-1 non-stop Norfolk to Panama in 25 hours 15 minutes, 1935
  • PH series were the last biplane patrol aircraft in US service
Timeline

Hall-Aluminum Aircraft, year by year

1927

Company founded in Buffalo

1929

XPH-1 first flight

1931

PH-1 deliveries to the Navy begin

1932

XP2H-1 first flight

1934

Operating from the ex-Keystone plant at Bristol, Pennsylvania

1935

XP2H-1 flies non-stop Norfolk to Panama

1936

Charles Ward Hall dies

1937

Navy PH-1s replaced by PBY Catalinas

1940

Consolidated buys and dissolves the company

1944

Coast Guard retires its last PHs

The family tree

Before and after Hall-Aluminum Aircraft

Came afterConsolidated AircraftBought and dissolved the company, 1940Read the Consolidated Aircraft page
Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about Hall-Aluminum Aircraft

Who founded Hall-Aluminum Aircraft?
Charles Ward Hall, son of Alcoa founder Charles Martin Hall, in 1927.
What was the Hall PH?
A twin-engine biplane patrol flying boat used by the US Navy and Coast Guard, the last biplane patrol aircraft in US service.
How many Hall PH flying boats were built?
24: nine PH-1, seven PH-2 and seven PH-3.
What happened to Hall-Aluminum?
Consolidated Aircraft bought the company in 1940 and dissolved it.

Continue the tour

Around Hall-Aluminum Aircraft

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Sources & Further Reading

Every fact, checked

Verified 2026-10-03.