After Hixson received her license, she began to train with the Women's Air force Service Pilots (WASP).
During World War II Hixson flew B-25 Mitchells as an engineering test pilot.
[3] In 1957 Hixson also became the second woman to exceed the speed of sound, in a Lockheed F-94C Starfire flying at over 840 miles per hour (1,350 km/h).
[5] After testing in the Mercury 13 program, Hixson went to work at the Flight Simulator Techniques branch of the USAF Reserve at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
[3] In 1982, she retired from the Air Force Reserves as a colonel, and that same year chaired a WASP reunion.