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Arthur Henry Mix

"The first man to enlist in the United States air service is me!  I got the paper to prove it and the paper says March 24, 1911."

Art Mix is a luxurious legend.  "And it ain't because I am the cousin of Tom Mix."  Before he enlisted in the air service, Art served with the U.S. Fifth Cavalry Troop.  Before the Cavalry Troop he was a stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo in Arizona.

His skill and judgement as a mechanic are renowned.  He served Barney Oldfield, and Lincoln Beachey until that audacious aerobat plunged to his death while exhibition flying for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, March 14, 1915.  "After Beachey, I served Katherine Stinson for half a year.  What a fine pilot; she could do anything the men tried."

Art nearly missed his aviation calling, for while on cavalry duty in Hawaii, he took his 1910 leave as a member of Jack London's crew aboard the Snark, exploring island inlets beneath a December sun.  "I liked the sea and was aboard that 36-footer nearly a month."

By the end of 1911 he was assigned to the Signal Corp's Augusta, Ga., aviation school testing a new dual-control Curtiss.  "The plane was required to lift 450 pounds to 2,000 feet in 10 minutes.  It never did."  The most exciting and productive period in his life was under Civil Service, as chief inspector for the Army Air Service, McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, from late 1917 through 1929.

[[image - small drawing of a propeller]]

Arthur Henry Mix: born Byron, Illinois, March 19, 1885.

[[image No. 105 - black & white photograph of Art Mix]]

[[image No. 106 - black & white photograph of Lincoln Beachy and Art Mix]]

[[caption - A famous duo seen at North Island flying field, San Diego, Calif., 1913.  Lincoln Beachy, left, and his mechanic Art Mix (106), and Mix 50 years later.[[105]] ]]




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