Attempting to install El Capitan issues

So we wiped the drive of this old macbook air we were given but were then unable to use Mac OS recovery it just gets stuck after I connect to our wifi. When I try the other internet recovery keyboard combinations at startup I just get the crossed out circle that means it doesn't have a compatible OS X on there. So I created a Mac OSX bootable USB drive on another old macbook and this works up until I have to select a drive to install it on, it doesn't show the computer HD at all. The solutions I have found online suggest loading into disc utility but since internet recovery gets stuck at wifi sign in I cannot access disc utility. I feel like I am stuck in a loop and can't seem to find any solutions to this issue online. Any ideas?