Cecil Howard Pixton (14 December 1885 – 7 February 1972) was a British aeronautical engineer, test pilot and air racing pilot who was most famous for winning the 1914 Schneider Trophy seaplane race.

Howard Pixton was the youngest of four boys born to John Pixton, a stockbroker, and his wife Elizabeth, living in West Didsbury, Manchester. They holidayed annually in the Isle of Man, and Howard was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He then worked at engineering companies, becoming a machine tool draughtsman, studying engineering in the evenings. He moved to Leek, Staffordshire to work for an engineering company to gain practical experience. Moving on to work for a local garage, he was asked to drive some customers to Germany, calling in at an aeronautical exhibition in Frankfurt on the way. Pixton thus saw his first aeroplane, and several airships, and having always been fascinated by the current advances in aviation he became determined to learn to fly.

In April 1910 he saw Claude Grahame-White and his Farman Box Kite at Lichfield having force-landed with engine trouble during his attempt to fly from London to Manchester to claim the £10,000 Daily Mail prize (equivalent to £1,018,400 in 2025).

This stirred Pixton to write to almost everyone connected with aviation asking for a job. He received a reply from Humphrey Verdon (H.V.) Roe from ‘Avroplanes’, A.V. Roe, of Brownsfield Mill, Ancoats, Manchester, where aeroplanes were being constructed to be flown by H.V.’s older brother, Alliott Verdon Roe at Brooklands. He was offered a job as a mechanic for A.V. at Brooklands, near Weybridge, Surrey, part of his remuneration being flying lessons. Pixton eagerly accepted.

He arrived at Brooklands in June 1910 and after a few days Roe gave him his first flight, in one of his Triplanes. He became a pupil and then a friend of Roe, and soon replaced him as test pilot. He quickly became an instructor, demonstrator and pilot for passenger rides in Avro’s series of triplanes and the Type D biplane.

The first air meeting Pixton attended was at Blackpool in July, with AV Roe and others along with two Roe III Triplanes. The Triplanes, along with spares, tools and personal belongings, were sent by rail, and Pixton was by chance on the same train. Approaching Preston, sparks from the engine set fire to the tarpaulin covering the aircraft, and Pixton watched as the whole truck and its contents were consumed by the fire. The next day the Avro team rushed to the factory in Manchester and were able to construct a new aircraft from spares within three days, and they took part in the later part of the week-long meeting, Pixton making his first display flight there.

At the 1910 Blackpool meeting A.V. Roe had met a member of the Harvard University Aeronautical Society who ordered a Triplane and invited him to attend their first flying meeting in September. Pixton and others were to accompany him on what was to be a one-month trip. After the Atlantic voyage (with Pixton and other lowly colleagues travelling steerage) they arrived at the Squantum Flying Ground outside Boston on 1 September.

Once the two Triplanes that they had brought with them were erected, A.V. Roe flew one but stalled at 60 feet (18 m) and was injured in the resulting crash. He recovered sufficiently to return to the airfield and fly the other Triplane, crashing yet again but without hurting himself further. This was the machine bought by the Americans. Roe and the rest of the team returned to Britain, leaving Pixton to assemble a working aircraft from the two wrecks, deliver it to the University, and sell them the remaining parts as spares, the money from which would pay for his fare home. He accomplished all of this and received enough money to travel second class on the voyage home, which was completed by the end of October.