Editing Jimmy Doolittle (section)

===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.