Pixton Howard - Howard Pixton – Test Pilot and Pioneer Aviator: The Biography of the first British Schneider Trophy Winner

The Life and Times of a Pioneer Aviator

First published in Great Britain by
PEN & SWORD AVIATION
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Stella Pixton, 2014

HARDBACK ISBN: 978 1 47382 256 6
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47383 670 9
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47383 494 1
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47383 582 5

The right of Stella Pixton to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted by her
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my father Howard Pixton.
British born, employed by A.V. Roe as his first test pilot,
he tested, flew and advised on many strange machines.
In those early pioneering years, during which he won
the Schneider Trophy, he risked life and limb
to advance aviation for his country.

THANKS

My thanks to my son Robert Dallas,
to my friend Frank Burlingham,
to Brigadier Henry Wilson of Pen & Sword,
for their advice and preparation of this book.

Thanks are belatedly extended to all wonderful founders of Flight, Aero and Aeroplane magazines with special thanks to C.G. Grey for his great friendship with my father, and also to the newspapers of the day, especially the Daily Mail under the leadership of Lord Northcliffe, for their detailed record of this period of history in which my father came to be involved.

Foreword

The name Howard Pixton is little known in most aviation circles, yet his contribution to aviation history is immense. He won the Schneider Trophy in 1914, having learnt to fly at Brooklands in 1910 at the very dawn of British aviation holding Aviation Certificate number 50.

His links with the Avro Aircraft Company also began in 1910 and he was much involved with early aircraft design, not least one of the greatest ever training machines, the Avro 504, on which my father was later to learn to fly at RAF Cranwell in 1920.

Howard Pixton taught many of the early RFC and RNAS pilots to fly, but at heart he was an engineer and did great work in both world wars as an expert on accident investigation. This was the forerunner of that work at Farnborough that now has a worldwide reputation for excellence.

His life-long love of the Isle of Man began after the First World War and his daughter Stella, who has contributed so much to this book, lives there to this day. I first met Stella when I was living on the island in the early years of this century as Lieutenant Governor; she is rightly proud of her fathers place in British aviation history, and her shop, Jurby Junk, is a place not to be missed on any tour of that lovely island. Howard Pixton is buried in the nearby Jurby churchyard, formerly the church for RAF Jurby.

This is a story of the very earliest years of aviation, told by a man who was intimately involved with it all, whose passion was aviation, and who had the good fortune to work with all the great aviation pioneers in Britain. It is most appropriate that, in the centenary year of his Schneider Trophy victory, the story of Howard Pixtons early life, and his contribution to aviation, should now be told.

I.D. Macfadyen
Air Marshal
Constable & Governor
Windsor Castle

Preface

I have been askedno, instructed to write a piece about my grandfather, the shining light of Brooklands, the aviation pioneering hero.

I didnt really know him that well. When at boarding school, and hearing of his passing, I cried, because I thought that was what was expected of me.

My true hero of this book is Stella, a shining star in the firmament.

A woman who, when head of her department at the Central Office of Information in the late 60s, would go to work wearing Elton John electric blue boots and an all-in-one ocelot cat suit and wonder why she was overlooked for promotion.

A woman, whose desire to have a child from every race in the world, started and stopped with methank God!

A woman, who has overcome her own battles in life and still has faith in humankind.

What a womanwhat a unique woman.

So I would like to thank my mum, my hero, my Stella for this book, because it is through her that I have got to know my grandfather. His story is history in the makingtruly epicgroundbreakingrecord-breakingheart breaking, and as I read, I am at his side living every moment of his early pioneering life.

Your father would be proud of you StelSonny Boy is.

Robert Dallas

(Grandson)

In the early years of the last century, aviation was cool and aviators were the rock-stars of the day. These magnificent men and their somewhat less magnificent flying machines were brave, romantic and quite mad. A clique of dashing young Edwardians took up flying, and often dying, in a weird array of hazardous contraptions held together with bits of string and pieces of wood. Yet these heroes paved the way for speedy and safe international flights for the masses. One of the most accomplished yet often overlooked members of this fraternity of pioneers was Howard Pixton, winner of the 1914 Schneider Trophy, whose fascinating story as told to his daughter Stella, is the subject of this book. So many of these airmen perished during these flights and while attempting to break records, yet Howard Pixton, one of the greatest, lived until the 1970s and now his stories will live on.

Mitch Murray

(Hit songwriter, speech-writer and author)

Previews

Stella did a marvellous thing in getting her fathers story down on paper some four decades ago. This fascinating account contains details of the early flying schools at Brooklands and Larkhill and of the runaway British victory in the 1914 Schneider Trophy race at Monaco, that are probably not recorded anywhere else, and but for Stella these would have been lost forever. This is vintage stuff a cracking good read.

Captain Bob Beese (Ex Fleet Air Arm and Dan-Air Pilot).

The bravery and pioneering spirit of these men in this book is tangible. Their unstoppable urge to fly, moved aviation from primitive beginnings of a few hardies to become an industry in a few short years. Howard Pixtons contribution in shifting the lead from France to Britain is well described. By winning the Schneider Trophy Howard Pixton put Great Britain on the aviation map. There is comradeship, sadness, high adventure and excitement amongst an array of international characters you wont put it down.