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.

Заводы

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

Люди

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

Рекорды и первые достижения

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