Steve Hinton
A pilot since 1971, Steve Hinton has logged more than 9,500 hours, with more than 120 aircraft types flown. He has been an A&P mechanic since 1976.
Hinton has been an air show performer in the United States, Europe and Japan since 1972. As an Unlimited Air Racer from 1975 through 1990, he captured six unlimited victories, including two National Championships. He was a world speed record holder for more than a decade for piston-powered aircraft – 499 miles per hour in a Red Baron – a feat that was captured on ABC-TV’s American Sportsman series. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hinton also flew for Western Airlines.
His film and TV aviation career began in 1976, flying a variety of warbirds for the television series “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and a charter and board member of the Motion Picture Pilots Association. He has been a movie pilot and coordinator since 1977, in films and TV series such as “The Aviator”, “Waterworld”, “The Rocketeer”, “Forever Young”, “Always”, “Blue Thunder”, “Flight of the Intruder”, “Iron Eagles 3”, and “Pearl Harbor”.
Since 1994, Hinton has been the president of the Planes of Fame Museum, with two facilities – Chino, California, and Valle Grand Canyon, Arizona. He is also the owner of Fighter Rebuilders, an aircraft restoration company that consults, restores, test flies, and certifies fighter and bomber aircraft for collectors as well as museums in the Untied States and Great Britain.
Kermit Weeks
At age 16 Kermit Weeks bought a set of drawings for $40 and began construction of his first flyable homebuilt aircraft. He went on to design and build a Weeks Special a few years later, which he flew to make the U.S. Aerobatic Team at 24. He placed second overall in the Special, winning three silvers and a bronze at his first World Aerobatic Championship in 1978. He also built and developed another aircraft called the Weeks Solution, and eventually won 20 medals at the world level and became a two-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion.
One of the proudest days of his life was when he taxied into a ramp full of friends in his new P-51D Mustang “Cripes A’Mighty” at age 25. As he began to collect more aircraft, he started to work with the local airport authorities to build a museum in southwest Miami.
He outgrew the Weeks Air Museum before the doors even opened, so in 1987 he purchased 250 acres in central Florida to develop his dream called Fantasy of Flight, which now houses aircraft from the beginning of flight through early jets.
Weeks’ warbird collection includes every major fighter and bomber the Americans flew during World War II, as well as the largest private collection of WWII British aircraft. He and his crew set a new standard with the winning of Oshkosh Grand Champion Warbird for their restoration of “Cripes A’Mighty”. After suffering damage from Hurricane Andrew, it was re-restored to an even higher standard and won Grand Champion again 10 years later.