Editing Jimmy Doolittle (section)

==Military career==
[[File:Curtiss Racer NASA GPN-2000-001310.jpg|thumb|left|Doolittle on his [[Curtiss R3C-2]] Racer, the plane in which he won the [[Schneider Trophy]] in 1925]]
Doolittle took a leave of absence in October 1917 to enlist in the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Signal Corps Reserve]] as a flying cadet; he received ground training at the School of Military Aeronautics (an Army school) on the campus of the [[University of California]], and flight-trained at [[Rockwell Field]], California. Doolittle received his [[U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Ratings|Reserve Military Aviator rating]] and was commissioned a [[second lieutenant]] in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army on March 11, 1918.

During [[World War I]], Doolittle stayed in the United States as a flight instructor and performed his war service at Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Center ("Camp Dick"), [[Texas]]; [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base|Wright Field, Ohio]]; Gerstner Field, [[Louisiana]]; Rockwell Field, California; [[Kelly Air Force Base|Kelly Field, Texas]], and [[Eagle Pass, Texas]].

Doolittle served at Rockwell as a flight leader and gunnery instructor. At Kelly Field, he served with the [[104th Aero Squadron]] and with the [[90th Fighter Squadron|90th Aero Squadron]] of the [[3d Operations Group|1st Surveillance Group]]. His detachment of the 90th Aero Squadron was based at [[Eagle Pass, Texas|Eagle Pass]], patrolling the Mexican border. Recommended by three officers for retention in the [[United States Army Air Service|Air Service]] during demobilization at the end of the war, Doolittle qualified by examination and received a Regular Army commission as a 1st Lieutenant, Air Service, on July 1, 1920.

On May 10, 1921, he was engineering officer and pilot for an expedition recovering a plane that had force-landed in a Mexican canyon on February 10 during a transcontinental flight attempt by [[Alexander Pearson Jr.]] Doolittle reached the plane on May 3 and found it serviceable, then returned May 8 with a replacement motor and four mechanics. The oil pressure of the new motor was inadequate, and Doolittle requested two pressure gauges, using [[carrier pigeon]]s to communicate. The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Doolittle flew the plane to [[Del Rio, Texas]], himself, taking off from a {{convert|400|yd|adj=on}} airstrip hacked out of the canyon floor.

Subsequently, he attended the Air Service Mechanical School at Kelly Field and the Aeronautical Engineering Course at [[McCook Field, Ohio]]. Having at last returned to complete his college degree, he earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] from the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1922, and joined the [[Lambda Chi Alpha]] fraternity.

Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period. On September 4, 1922, he made the first of many pioneering flights, flying a [[de Havilland]] [[DH-4]]—which was equipped with early navigational instruments—in the first cross-country flight, from Pablo Beach (now [[Jacksonville Beach, Florida|Jacksonville Beach]]), [[Florida]], to Rockwell Field, [[San Diego]], California, in 21 hours and 19 minutes, making only one refueling stop at Kelly Field. The U.S. Army awarded him the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]].
[[File:JimmyDoolittle.jpeg|thumb|Doolittle in a pre-World War II photo]]

Within days after the transcontinental flight, he was at the Air Service Engineering School (a precursor to the [[Air Force Institute of Technology]]) at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. For Doolittle, the school assignment had special significance: "I had applied for the Engineering School because I thought there should be a better rapport between the aeronautical engineer and the pilot. It seemed to me that the engineers felt pilots were all a little crazy or else they wouldn't be pilots. The pilots felt the engineers as a group were, if not incompetent, at least not thoroughly acquainted with the pilot's viewpoint—that all the engineers did was zip slide rules back and forth and come out with erroneous results and bad aircraft. I thought from a philosophical point of view that it would be good to have engineers and pilots understand one another better. It seemed desirable to marry these two capabilities in one person—and I wanted to be that person."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doolittle |first1=James H. |first2=Carroll V. |last2=Glines |year=1991 |title=I Could Never Be So Lucky Again: An Autobiography |publisher=[[Random House Publishing Group]] |edition=Kindle |page=73}}</ref>

In July 1923, after serving as a [[test pilot]] and aeronautical engineer at McCook Field, Doolittle entered the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. In March 1924, he conducted aircraft acceleration tests at McCook Field, which became the basis of his master's thesis and led to his second Distinguished Flying Cross. He received his [[Master of Science|SM]] degree in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924. Because the Army had given him two years to get his degree and he had done it in just one, he immediately started working on his [[Doctor of Science|Sc.D.]] in Aeronautics, which he received in June 1925. His doctorate in aeronautical engineering was the first issued in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last=Quigley |first=Samantha L. |title=Detroit Defied Reality to Help Win World War II |url=https://www.uso.org/stories/112-detroit-defied-reality-to-help-win-world-war-ii |website=[[United Service Organizations]] |access-date=8 January 2016}}</ref> He said that he considered his master's work more significant than his doctorate.<ref>Doolittle (1991), p. 90.</ref>

Following graduation, Doolittle attended special training in high-speed seaplanes at [[Naval Support Facility Anacostia|Naval Air Station Anacostia]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] He also served with the Naval Test Board at [[Mitchel Field]], [[Long Island]], [[New York (state)|New York]], and was a familiar figure in air speed record attempts in the New York area. He won the [[Schneider Trophy|Schneider Cup]] race in a [[Curtiss R3C]] in 1925 with an average speed of {{convert|232|mph}}.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The 1925 Schneider Trophy Race |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1925/1925%20-%200703.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208162507/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1925/1925%20-%200703.html |archive-date=8 December 2008 |format=PDF |journal=[[Flight International|Flight]] |date=October 29, 1925 |page=703}}</ref> For that feat, Doolittle was awarded the [[Mackay Trophy]] in 1926.

In April 1926, Doolittle was given a leave of absence to go to [[South America]] to perform demonstration flights for Curtiss Aircraft. In [[Chile]], he broke both ankles while demonstrating his acrobatic abilities in an incident that was known as Night of the Pisco Sours.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=An American Hero |url=https://www.airforcemag.com/article/1193doolittle/ |access-date=20 April 2021 |magazine=Air Force Magazine}}</ref> Despite having both ankles in casts, Doolittle put his Curtiss [[Curtiss P-1 Hawk|P-1 Hawk]] through aerial maneuvers that outdid the competition. He returned to the United States and was confined to [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center|Walter Reed Army Hospital]] for his injuries until April 1927. He was then assigned to McCook Field for experimental work, with additional duty as an instructor pilot to the 385th Bomb Squadron of the Air Corps Reserve. During this time, in 1927 he was the first to perform an [[outside loop]], previously thought to be a fatal maneuver. Carried out in a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio, Doolittle executed the dive from {{convert|10,000|ft}}, reached {{convert|280|mph}}, bottomed out upside down, then climbed and completed the loop.

===Instrument flight===
[[File:JamesDoolittle-bust.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Bust of General Doolittle at the [[Imperial War Museum Duxford|Imperial War Museum, Duxford]]]]
{{For|another instrument flying pioneer|William C. Ocker}}

Doolittle's most important contribution to aeronautical technology was his early advancement of [[Instrument flight rules|instrument flying]]. He was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved until pilots developed the ability to control and navigate aircraft in flight from takeoff run to landing rollout, regardless of the range of vision from the cockpit. Doolittle was the first to envision that a pilot could be trained to use instruments to fly through fog, clouds, precipitation of all forms, darkness, or any other impediment to visibility, and in spite of the pilot's own possibly convoluted motion sense inputs. Even at this early stage, the ability to control aircraft was getting beyond the motion sense capability of the pilot. That is, as aircraft became faster and more maneuverable, pilots could become seriously disoriented without visual cues from outside the cockpit, because aircraft could move in ways that pilots' senses could not accurately decipher.

Doolittle was also the first to recognize these psycho-physiological limitations of the human senses (particularly the motion sense inputs, i.e., up, down, left, right). He initiated the study of the relationships between the psychological effects of visual cues and motion senses. His research resulted in programs that trained pilots to read and understand navigational instruments. A pilot learned to "trust his instruments," not his senses, as visual cues and his motion sense inputs (what he sensed and "felt") could be incorrect or unreliable.

In 1929, he became the first pilot to take off, fly and land an airplane using [[Flight instruments|instruments]] alone, without a view outside the cockpit.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Preston |editor-first=Edmund |title=FAA Historical Chronology: Civil Aviation and the Federal Government, 1926–1996 |url=https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/37596/dot_37596_DS1.pdf |access-date=5 October 2020 |website=Repository and Open Science Access Portal; National Transportation Library; United States Department of Transportation |publisher=[[United States Federal Aviation Administration]] |quote=Sep 24, 1929: At Mitchel Field, N.Y., Army Lt. James H. Doolittle became the first pilot to use only instrument guidance to take off, fly a set course, and land. Doolittle received directional guidance from a radio range course aligned with the airport runway, while radio marker beacons indicated his distance from the runway. [...] He flew in a hooded cockpit, but was accompanied by a check pilot who could have intervened in an emergency. |page=[https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/37596/dot_37596_DS1.pdf#page=9 9]}}</ref> Having returned to Mitchell Field that September, he helped develop blind-flying equipment. He helped develop, and was then the first to test, the now universally used [[Attitude indicator|artificial horizon]] and [[Heading indicator|directional]] [[gyroscope]]. He attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the [[Harmon Trophy]] for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical.

===Reserve status===
[[File:Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) and Donald Ryan Mockler in the Times Union of Brooklyn, New York on 29 May 1932.jpg|thumb|1932, flying for the [[Hoover League]]]]
In January 1930, Doolittle advised the Army on the construction of [[Floyd Bennett Field]] in New York City. Doolittle resigned his regular commission on February 15, 1930, and was commissioned a Major in the Air Reserve Corps a month later, being named manager of the Aviation Department of [[Shell Oil Company]], in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests.<ref>{{cite book |title=A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry |first=Donald M. |last=Pattillo |page=16}}</ref> While in the Reserve, he also returned to temporary active duty with the Army frequently to conduct tests.

Doolittle helped influence Shell Oil Company to produce the first quantities of [[Octane rating|100 octane]] aviation gasoline. High octane fuel was crucial to the high-performance planes that were developed in the late 1930s.

In 1931, Doolittle won the first [[Bendix Trophy]] race from [[Burbank, California]], to [[Cleveland]], in a [[Laird Super Solution]] biplane.

In 1932, Doolittle set the world's high-speed record for land planes at {{convert|296|mph}} in the Shell Speed Dash. Later, he took the [[Thompson Trophy]] race at Cleveland in the notorious [[Gee Bee R-1]] racer with a speed averaging {{convert|252|mph}}. After having won the three big air racing trophies of the time, the Schneider, Bendix, and Thompson, he officially retired from air racing, stating, "I have yet to hear anyone engaged in this work dying of old age."

In April 1934, Doolittle was selected to be a member of the Baker Board. Chaired by former [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Newton D. Baker]], the board was convened during the [[Air Mail scandal]] to study Air Corps organization. In 1940, he became president of the Institute of Aeronautical Science.

The development of 100-octane aviation gasoline on an economic scale was due in part to Doolittle, who had become aviation manager of Shell Oil Company. Around 1935 he convinced Shell to invest in refining capacity to produce 100-octane fuel on a scale that nobody needed since no aircraft existed that required a fuel that nobody made. Some fellow employees would call his effort "Doolittle's million-dollar blunder" but time would prove him correct. Before this the Army had considered 100-octane tests using pure octane but at $25 a gallon it did not happen. By 1936 tests at Wright Field using a cheaper alternative to pure octane proved the value of the fuel and both Shell and Standard Oil of New Jersey would win the contract to supply test quantities for the Army. By 1938 the price was down to 17.5 cents a gallon, only 2.5 cents more than 87 octane fuel. By the end of WW II, the price would be down to 16 cents a gallon and the U.S. armed forces would be consuming 20 million gallons a day.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://media.defense.gov/2017/Nov/21/2001847256/-1/-1/0/DP_0017_BISHOP_JIMMY_DOOLITTLE.PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329211722/https://media.defense.gov/2017/Nov/21/2001847256/-1/-1/0/DP_0017_BISHOP_JIMMY_DOOLITTLE.PDF |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 29, 2020 |title=''Defense'' Jimmy Doolittle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lo9TAAAAMAAJ&q=Development+of+Aircraft+Engines:+Two+Studies+of+Relations+Between+Government+...&pg=PA15 |title=Development of Aircraft Engines: Two Studies of Relations Between Government and Business |first=Robert |last=Schlaifer |author-link=Robert Schlaifer |date=April 10, 1950 |publisher=Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Doolittle returned to active duty in the [[United States Army Air Corps|U.S. Army Air Corps]] on July 1, 1940, with the rank of Major. He was assigned as the assistant district supervisor of the Central Air Corps Procurement District at [[Indianapolis]] and [[Detroit]], where he worked with large auto manufacturers on the conversion of their plants to aircraft production.<ref>{{cite book |last=Herman |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur L. Herman |title=Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II |year=2012 |pages=114, 219–222, 239, 279 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4000-6964-4}}</ref> The following August, he went to England as a member of a special mission and brought back information about other countries' air forces and military build-ups.