From the online archives of the Boston Public Library and Umass Amherst. One of the last interviews Bob Hall ever gave before his passing. From a series of interviews with former employees of the Granville Airplane Company of Springfield, Mass. A 1927 graduate of the University of Michigan, Hall (ca.1906-1991) worked briefly with Fairchild Aircraft Co., before becoming chief engineer at Granville Aircraft: he was designer of the Gee Bee ‘City of Springfield’ racer among other designs. After Granville, Hall opened his own shop in 1932 where he built the Springfield Bulldog and Cicada. Closing just over a year later he went on to work for Stinson and then Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.. At Grumman he became a test pilot as well as one of the designers of the F4F Wildcat, the F6F Hellcat, the F8F Bearcat, and the F7F Tigercat. The interview includes Hall’s impressions of his first test flight with a Gee Bee sixty years before; work with the Granvilles; Sportster model; Grumman Wildcat; impressions of the Granville brothers.
Listen for free: Robert L. ‘Bob’ Hall: oral history with Thomas E. Nallen and Donald Foster, January 31, 1990
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