From 1909 onwards both he and Geoffrey became fascinated by aviation; with money earned by Roderic from drawings published in The Sphere, they built, and successfully flew, a glider of their own design in 1913.

[1] While recovering from his wounds, Hill successfully applied to join the Royal Flying Corps and by July 1916 he had transferred and qualified as a pilot.

60 Squadron, then flying the tricky Morane-Saulnier N.[1][4] He quickly proved himself a skilled pilot, making repeated patrols and engagements over the German lines and fighting in the air battles during the Somme offensive in November 1916.

[1] In February 1917, Hill's reputation as an intelligent pilot with aerobatic skills led to his posting as the leader of the experimental flying department at Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough.

[1] In August of that year he was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) for meritorious flying as an experimental pilot at Farnborough;[6] he had flown into a barrage balloon cable to test a newly invented protective device.

[1] During this tour, he also carried out development work testing wireless direction finding, radio control; he experimented personally with early types of parachute.

[1] He wrote and illustrated a memoir of his time in Iraq and the Middle East: it gives a lively account of flying the large biplanes of the period over difficult desert terrain, and also provides a sharply focussed, and sometimes lyrical description of the landscape and people of the region.

[4] During the Second World War Hill was Director-General of Research and Development at the Air Ministry and then Commandant of the RAF Staff College from 1942.