Only Black ultralight aircraft builder in the US lives in Edgecombe County

Over decades of perseverance, Silvester Hill overcame racial discrimination and pushback to inspire a new generation of pilots to take to the skies.

In a garage on his farm in the town of Whitakers, Silvester Hill is building a plane.

It’s probably not the high-tech workshop that comes to mind when you think of aerospace engineering, but you’ll quickly find almost nothing about Hill is typical.

“Unfortunately, I realized that I stood out in the industry when I started flying,” Hill told WRAL News.

Silvester Hill is the only Black builder in the country of ultralight aircraft.

They’re one-seater planes equipped with motors and a glider or parachute to take flight.

Hill has designed, manufactured and flown his own planes from his farm in Whitakers for the last 15 years, part of a passion for flying that goes back to the 1970s when ultralights were first invented.

“I started building my own aircraft,” Hill said. “Some of them flew, some of them didn’t, until finally I met the powered parachute, and it just all came together.”

Hill quickly became one of the first certified ultralight pilots in the country.

He also faced discrimination and pushback due to his race.

“I had issues of basically, ‘That Black guy with that funny contraption, I’m not going to let him fly here,’” Hill said. “It happened a few times, and those people I considered good friends, that said no, you can’t fly here.”

Instead of quitting, Hill pushed on, eventually developing his own signature aircraft, the Slyflight Angel.

Each of the planes can sell for more than $11,000, and Hill said he’s become one of the most popular builders in the ultralight industry.

“I’m not the kind of person that really pushes to be noticed like that, but it happened,” Hill said. “And it happened because of my hard work and I’m cool with that.”

More importantly, he’s also mentored a number of Black pilots, helping them get certified for the same passion he pioneered himself.

Sometimes he still thinks about the airport owners who discriminated against him decades ago, but there’s no hate in Hill’s heart.

“If he showed up here, I’d let him fly,” Hill said. “But I’d remind him that he didn’t let me do the same.”