Editing Jimmy Doolittle (section)

===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.