Blackhawk Airways Founder & Hall of Famer, Dick Wixom

September 29, 1929 – October 17, 2021
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine – December 2021/January 2022 Online Issue

(L/R) Richard “Dick” Wixom, Joan Wixom and Kevin Wixom with a Beech 18 in the background at Blackhawk Airways, Janesville, Wisconsin.

James Richard “Dick” Wixom, 92, died of heart failure on October 17, 2021, in the care of Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Wixom grew up on a dairy farm and worked in Janesville, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Joan, were married 60 years before her passing in 2012.

In the 1950s while farming, Dick Wixom knew he wanted to pursue an aviation career, so he enrolled at Janesville Vocational School (now Blackhawk Technical College), where he earned his Airframe and Powerplant Certificate with Inspector Authorization. During this time, he became a flight instructor at Hodge Aero at what is now Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville, and purchased his first aircraft, a Taylorcraft, which he kept on his farm.

In 1958, Wixom finally left the farm to become a corporate pilot for Parker Pen until they closed their flight department. In 1965, he became the chief pilot at Midwest Aviation, and by 1970, he started his own charter airline, Blackhawk Airways. Blackhawk Airways flew General Motors auto parts all over the Midwest, had scheduled service for Emery Air Freight and the New York Times to several Midwestern cities, flew donor organs to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and flew air charter.

As the business grew, Wixom’s sons – Kevin and Larry – along with his wife, Joan, built the business to a thriving aviation company with 20 aircraft and dozens of employees. Part of their business included restoring World War II aircraft. Wixom was very proud of the World War II Curtis P-40 he restored after it was recovered from Lake Michigan, and of course proud of his 1943 Beechcraft Staggerwing which he restored from a pile of parts. Dick and Joan Wixom sold Blackhawk Airways in 1996 and retired.

In retirement Dick Wixom continued to fly as a corporate and independent pilot. He and Joan would also fly their Staggerwing from coast-to-coast displaying the aircraft at numerous airshows.

Wixom contributed to numerous organizations and was actively involved in the Blackhawk Technical College Advisory Board, Yankee Air Force, Beechcraft Heritage Museum, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Warbirds and Antique Divisions, and numerous local civic organizations.

Dick Wixom won the EAA Antique Restoration Award for the quality work on his Staggerwing restoration in 1986. In 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration awarded him the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying without an accident. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Beechcraft Heritage Museum’s Merit Award in 2018 for helping to preserve the legacy of Beechcraft.