He attended the Manual Training High School in Brooklyn, and graduated from the Pratt Institute with a certificate in Industrial Mechanical Engineering in 1917.

[1] He left Douglas Aircraft in 1926, briefly worked for the airplane division of Ford Motor Company, and then became an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps, but did not become a military pilot.

He then returned to Douglas Aircraft, and joined Ryan Airlines in San Diego on 31 January 1927 as a full-time chief engineer and parts inspector, three weeks before Charles A. Lindbergh visited the company to inquire about designing the Spirit of St.

Lindbergh later stated in his Pulitzer Prize winning 1953 book, The Spirit of St. Louis, that he chose Ryan Airlines in part because he believed in Hall's ability.

[3] The two men began working closely to design and construct the aircraft in only sixty days, from 28 February 1927 to 28 April 1927 when the first flight tests started.

[2] Upon the request of Charles Lindbergh, Donald Hall intentionally left the aircraft slightly unstable to help keep its aviator awake.

[2] The final aircraft was known as the Ryan NYP (registration number N-X-211) which captured popular imagination as the Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927 by flying nonstop from New York to Paris and winning Charles Lindbergh the Orteig Prize.