Pilot, preservationist

Hinton won two Unlimited championships and set the world speed record for piston-engine planes — and that’s just what he did in his spare time. He also worked as a pilot and aerial coordinator for television and motion pictures, like TV’s Baa Baa Black Sheep and films like Pearl Harbor. The charter member of the Motion Pictures Pilots Association competed in the Unlimited class for 13 years, piloting “Red Baron,” John Sandberg’s “Tsunami” and the All Coast “Super Corsair,” winning two Gold National Championships in Reno (1978, 1985), the 1979 Miami Gold, 1990 Texas Gold and two Mojave Gold Unlimited air races. The record he set in “Red Baron” in 1979 (499.046 mph) stood for a decade. Since 1990, Hinton has continued his relationship with air racing as official Reno National Air Races Unlimited pace pilot, president of the Planes of Fame Air Museum and owner of Fighter Rebuilders, a world-renowned warbird restoration firm. Of his recent work, he says, “We’ve got to make sure these airplanes and the veterans’ stories are out there forever.”