Will Hilton

Will developed a passion for flying through his father who taught him to glide at a young age. Will went on to solo on his 16th Birthday and complete his PPL at 17 before building his flying hours towing gliders and flying aerobatics at White Waltham, where he cleaned aircraft to fund his passion.

Throughout this time, Will was hugely interested in vintage aircraft and was fortunate to have flown a number of hours in a DHC Chipmunk that his father had a share in. His ultimate dream was to one day fly the iconic Spitfire.

Through engineering work experience in 2012, Will was incredibly fortunate to meet G-ILDA and her pilots for the first time and stayed in touch with the Academy while completing his Frozen ATPL. This led to flying the Boeing 737-800 for a major European short haul carrier. In 2019, Will returned to the UK to fly the Boeing 787 and also started working in the Spitfires.com hangar with the engineering team on his days off.

Over the following seasons, while working with the operations and engineering teams, Will converted to the academy’s T-6 Texan flying alongside the Spitfire, before ultimately converting to the Spitfire during the summer of 2022.

Will is incredibly passionate about operating these historic aircraft with the Spitfires.com team, and feels hugely privileged to be able to share such an experience with our guests.

Will is one of Spitfires.com’s Spitfire TR9 pilots.