About “the spirit behind the spirit….”

Explore the history of aviation through the eyes of Harold Bixby (1890-1965), including ballooning, the 1923 International Air Races in St. Louis, early air mail, Bixby’s relationship with Charles Lindbergh and Lindbergh’s famous solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Bixby’s pioneering years in China in the 1930’s establishing the first air mail and passenger routes with the China National Aviation Corp., a subsidiary of Pan American Airways, and the preparations for the first trans-Pacific flight in the China Clipper in 1935. 

Bixby was active in aviation as a technical advisor well after his retirement as PAA vice-president in 1955. In his later years, conservation efforts in Florida absorbed him including working with J.N. “Ding” Darling in establishing the Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island and in efforts to control erosion on Captiva Island, his winter home. 

“I am thoroughly captivated by Benjamin Barrett’s book about the life and work of his grandfather, Harold Bixby, one of the most important figures in the development of aviation around the world. [Bixby’s] love of flying encompassed the world, yet he was a self-effacing, modest man who took little credit for his own contributions. 

Bixby was at the heart of the group [...] who raised the funds to build the “Spirit of St. Louis” for my father’s flight from New York to Paris in  1927, and the two men became close friends for a lifetime. It has been a joy to me to see their letters here, at first between “Mr. Bixby” and “Mr. Lindbergh” at the outset of the great “Spirit of St. Louis” adventure, but continuing as thoughtful, deeply informative and frequently humorous exchanges  between “Bix” and “Slim” over the decades. 

The book has been meticulously researched and beautifully presented, with careful arrangements, of photographs, maps, letters and records for the reader to pore over. This is, first of all, a labor of love and hard work on the part of Ben Barrett in honor of his grandfather, bit it is also a real gift to the history of aviation, and to those of us who remember the aviation pioneers.           Reeve Lindbergh