LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT For long and significant service to the international helicopter community Michael K. Hynes President, Hynes Aviation Services, Branson, Missouri, USA
It all started with a $5 airplane ride. It was that ride almost 80 years ago that ignited a fire in Michael Hynes’s belly and led to a very successful, 65-year aviation career. At 17, he joined the US Air Force to become an aircraft mechanic. He was stationed at Palm Beach Air Force Base after
graduation and eventually earned his airplane commercial certificate with a flight instructor rating. In the first few years after leaving the Air Force, Hynes and a partner established
a thriving airplane flight school, and Hynes started a fixed-base operation, aircraft maintenance shop, and charter service, which was one of the first Learjet corporate operators. He then earned his airline transport pilot certificate in 1959. In the 1960s, after hearing about a Bell helicopter that achieved a top speed of over 150 kt, Hynes saw potential in adding helicopters to his school. Unable to find rotary-wing instruction in Florida, he built three hours of helicopter time at schools around the country. He acquired a Brantly B-2 helicopter in 1967 and taught himself to fly it, earning his commercial and flight instructor certificates in 1968. Using the Brantly and a Bell 47 helicopter, Hynes then formed one of Florida’s first GI Bill helicopter flight schools. Frustrated with limited access to parts for the aircraft, he also formed Brantly
Operators, a maintenance and parts resource for the more than 350 Brantly helicopters in use. Hynes’s ties to Brantly soon led to him securing ownership of the two Brantly type certificates, a vast parts inventory, and full production tooling in 1971 when Learjet filed for bankruptcy. Hynes moved his Brantly operation to Frederick, Oklahoma, and created a new company, Hynes Aviation Industries. During those years, he received FAA production certification for the redeveloped helicopter, now called the Brantly-Hynes B-2. He also designed and tested fly- by-wire artificial intelligence systems for drones and remotely piloted vehicles. At the same time, Hynes operated his now Oklahoma-based flight school, assisting former Vietnamese-military helicopter pilots to transition to successful piloting careers in the United States using Hynes aircraft. He was appointed as a designated pilot examiner to support the training and has since administered more than 800 airplane and helicopter flight exams to pilots from 38 countries. Aviation has had its ups and downs for Hynes. He had backed a production loan for his US Army contract himself, and
Michael K. Hynes
when payments from the Army fell behind, he was forced into bankruptcy and had to sell his Hynes Aviation Industries assets. Undaunted, he changed course and attended college, achieving his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. In addition to teaching high school and adult career and technical education courses, he has taught at Western Oklahoma State College and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Altus Air Force Base campus. Hynes was appointed director of aviation education programs at the College of the Ozarks in 2003. He has built 16,500 flight hours in 314 types of aircraft and is one of the few individuals to be awarded both the FAA’s Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award and its Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.
Now semiretired, Hynes, who turns 85 this year, currently oversees a $450,000 trust Sponsored by
fund that provides annual scholarships for students interested in aviation. When he talks to the next generation of aviation professionals about careers in the field, he also shares an underlying message about his secret to success. “I tell kids to find that thing that gives them a fire in their belly,” he says. “I tell them that when they find it and follow it, they’ve found what will make them successful.”
MARCH 2021 ROTOR 53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
