Warrenton, Virginia

Inducted in 2000, Kenneth Wayne Hyde earned both pilot’s and mechanic’s license under the apprenticeship of fellow Hall of Famer Charlie Kulp.  After high school, he went to work as a mechanic for Capital Airlines. In 1961, he was employed by Bendix Corporation as a co-pilot/mechanic on instrumented aircraft calibrating worldwide tracking stations for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects. In 1965, Hyde joined American Airlines and retired in September 1998, with 33 years of service flying the Boeing 727’s for 29 of these years. In 1965, he started the Virginia Aviation Company, an antique aircraft restoration business.  Over the years Hyde has restored aircraft for the National Air and Space Museum, EAA Museum, U.S. Army Museum at Ft. Rucker, AL. and U.S. Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Sill, OK. His award-winning restorations included a 1918 Curtiss Jenny and a Clipped-Wing Monocoupe “Little Butch”.  Hyde’s current effort, “The Wright Experience,” is to build an exact reproduction of the Wright brothers 1903 Flyer, which is to be flown on December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of man’s first successful powered flight.