Alvin Melvin "Tex" Johnston (August 18, 1914 – October 29, 1998) was an American jet-age test pilot for Bell Aircraft and the Boeing Company. Early life Johnston was born August 18, 1914, in Admire, Kansas, to farmers Alva and Ella Johnston. He had his first airplane ride in 1925, at 11 years old, when a barnstormer landed near his family farm. At the age of 15, Johnston used his newspaper route money to purchase a wrecked Cessna glider. After repairing the glider, Johnston's father would pull it behind their car and Johnston would release the tow cable and glide to a landing in a nearby field. After graduating from Emporia High School in 1932, Johnston enrolled in the airplane mechanic program at the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Once Johnston became an apprentice mechanic, he was able to offset his flight training costs by working on the school's aircraft. After graduating from Spartan, Johnston joined the Inman's Flying Circus, working as both a pilot and mechanic. After a season with Inman's, Johnston bought a Command-Aire biplane and started barnstorming on his own. When the 1934 barnstorming season ended, Johnston sold his airplane and returned to Emporia, Kansas. He reunited with his high school girlfriend, DeLores Honea, and married in 1935. In order to create a stable income for his young family, Johnston operated a movie theater for several years, but soon yearned to continue his aviation career. He enrolled in Kansas State University's aeronautical engineering program, but dropped out in 1939 to become a civilian instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corp's Civilian Pilot Training Program. Once the United States entered World War II, Johnston transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps Ferry Command and was based in Dallas, Texas flying domestic ferry flights. Test pilot Bell Aircraft In December 1942, Bell Aircraft chief test pilot Robert Stanley offered Johnston a position as a production test pilot. Johnston flew the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the XP-63 Kingcobra during the prototype phases as well as the first American jet, the XP-59 Airacomet. Johnston earned his nickname "Tex" because of his penchant for wearing cowboy boots and a Stetson hat on the flightline. After World War II ended, Johnston convinced Larry Bell to purchase two war-surplus Airacobras to be modified and entered in the National Air Races as a publicity stunt. The two P-39's were named Cobra I and II,