Jean Fontella Hixson
September 30, 1922 – September 21, 1984
Class: 44-W-6
Graduated: August 4, 1944
Training Location: Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas
Assigned Base: Douglas Army Air Field, Arizona
Aircraft Flown: B-25 Mitchell
Postwar Service: United States Air Force Reserve, retired as colonel
Jean Hixson spent much of her life moving between two places that were not often connected at the time: the cockpit and the classroom.
Born in Hoopeston, Illinois, on September 30, 1922, Hixson began taking flying lessons at 16 and earned her private pilot’s license at 18. When the United States entered World War II, she already possessed the civilian flying experience required to apply for the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Hixson began training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, with class 44-W-6 on January 8, 1944. The class started with 136 trainees. Seventy-two, including Hixson, completed the demanding program and received their silver wings on August 4, 1944. Texas Woman’s University identifies Hixson among the graduates of class 44-W-6.
After graduation, Hixson was assigned to Douglas Army Air Field in Arizona. There she flew the twin-engine B-25 Mitchell as an engineering test pilot. These flights were practical assignments, not demonstrations. Aircraft had to be evaluated before they could be returned to regular operations, and a mechanical problem discovered in flight could place the test pilot in immediate danger.
A photograph preserved by the official WASP archive shows Hixson at Douglas being congratulated by Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Fellow WASP Geraldine Olinger stands behind her. The photograph and its archival description are available through Texas Woman’s University.
The WASP program was disbanded on December 20, 1944, but Hixson’s work in aviation was only beginning. She earned commercial pilot ratings in single-engine and multiengine aircraft, became a flight instructor, competed in transcontinental air races, and flew helicopters, balloons, and the Goodyear blimp. Over the course of her career, she accumulated more than 6,000 flight hours.
In 1957, Hixson became the second woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. The flight earned her the nickname “the supersonic schoolmarm,” an appropriate description for someone who maintained substantial careers in both aviation and education. The Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine records her supersonic flight, postwar flying qualifications, and more than 6,000 flight hours.
While continuing to fly, Hixson attended the University of Akron and prepared for a second profession. She taught mathematics and science in Akron’s public schools and also presented astronomy lessons. Her teaching career lasted approximately three decades. She reportedly piloted aircraft, helicopters, balloons, and the Goodyear blimp while working as an educator. The University of Akron’s Women’s History project documents her teaching and postwar aviation careers.
Hixson also continued her military service in the United States Air Force Reserve. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, she worked with the Flight Simulator Techniques Branch, bringing her experience as a pilot and educator into another technical field. She retired from the Reserve as a colonel in 1982 after more than 30 years of service.
One of the most unusual chapters in Hixson’s life began in 1961, when she participated in medical testing intended to examine whether experienced women pilots could meet the physiological demands of spaceflight.
Dr. William Randolph Lovelace II, who had helped develop medical examinations for NASA’s Mercury astronauts, arranged for accomplished women aviators to undergo comparable testing. Thirteen women, including Hixson, successfully completed the initial examinations. They later became widely known as the Mercury 13, although the privately organized project was not an official NASA astronaut-training or selection program.
The testing was physically demanding. Candidates endured examinations of their cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, and sensory systems. NASA records Hixson among the 13 women who qualified through this privately conducted program. NASA provides a history of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees and names Hixson among the participants.
The women were never given the opportunity to compete for places in NASA’s astronaut corps. At the time, NASA required its astronauts to be military jet test pilots, a career path from which women were effectively excluded. The independent testing project ended before Hixson or the other participants could complete the full series of planned evaluations.
Hixson did not leave the matter unchallenged. In a 1973 interview, she argued that spaceflight assignments should go to the person capable of returning the most useful information, rather than being determined by assumptions about gender. Her view reflected the practical standard by which she had lived her own career: preparation and ability mattered more than convention.
In 1982, the year she retired from the Air Force Reserve, Hixson helped organize and chair a national WASP reunion in Cleveland. Correspondence preserved by the University of North Texas documents her work with fellow WASP Mary Ellen Keil in planning the gathering. The original 1982 reunion letter is available through the Portal to Texas History.
Jean Hixson died in Akron, Ohio, on September 21, 1984, nine days before her 62nd birthday. Her career had stretched from wartime B-25 test flights to supersonic aviation and the earliest serious examination of women’s fitness for spaceflight. At the same time, she spent decades teaching children in Ohio classrooms.
Hixson’s record is not simply a story about opportunities denied. It is the record of a woman who kept finding useful work to do in aviation, military service, and education, even when the next official path was closed to her.
Sources
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, WASP Collection
Texas Woman’s University, WASP Class 44-W-6
Texas Woman’s University, Jean Hixson at Douglas Army Air Field
NASA, “Women Who Reach for the Stars”
University of Akron, “Jean Hixson, 1922–1984”
