Jimmy Doolittle

The boy who grew up in Nome, Alaska, built a local reputation as a boxer, then went to Berkeley to study mining. Flying took him instead. The Army sent him to MIT, where he finished a master's in a year and stayed for a doctorate in aeronautics in 1925, the first awarded in the United States. In September 1929, at Mitchel Field, he took off with the cockpit covered and nothing visible outside, flew a set course, and landed on instruments alone. All-weather aviation begins there. Running Shell's aviation department, he later pushed the company to build refining capacity for 100-octane gasoline that no existing aircraft required. Colleagues called it Doolittle's million-dollar blunder. By 1945 American forces burned 20 million gallons a day.

On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 medium bombers took off from the deck of the carrier Hornet, which nobody had thought a bomber that size could do, and flew to Japan. There was no way back to the ship. The bombs did little damage to Japanese war industry. That was never the point: four months after Pearl Harbor, the raid told Americans the war could be carried the other way, and it pushed Japanese commanders into the strategy that lost them Midway. Doolittle expected a court-martial for losing every aircraft. Roosevelt gave him the Medal of Honor.

Of the 16 crews, 15 came down in occupied China that night, most of them out of fuel — Doolittle in a rice paddy near Quzhou. One landed in Soviet territory. Eight men fell into Japanese hands: three were shot by firing squad in October 1942, one died of disease and malnutrition in a cell, four came home in 1945. The heavier cost fell on the Chinese. Japanese forces swept Zhejiang and Jiangxi through that summer, hunting the villagers who had sheltered the airmen. One estimate puts civilian deaths during the search for the fliers at 10,000. Chinese estimates for the whole campaign run to 250,000. Doolittle spent another 51 years carrying that alongside the most celebrated thing he ever did.

He took the Eighth Air Force in January 1944 and made a decision that arguably mattered more than the raid: he cut the escort fighters loose. Rather than tie them to the bomber formations, he let them range ahead, hunt German fighters wherever they gathered, and strafe airfields on the way home. Within months the Luftwaffe's ability to defend Germany was breaking. He retired in 1959. On April 4, 1985, Ronald Reagan pinned on his fourth star — a promotion the Comptroller General later ruled unlawful for pay purposes, leaving it entirely honorary. Doolittle died of a stroke at Pebble Beach on September 27, 1993, aged 96, and lies at Arlington beside his wife.

Jimmy Doolittle's life against the full span of the corpus.

• First transcontinental crossing of the United States inside a day mission
  Florida to California in 21 hours and 19 minutes with one fuel stop 1922
• First outside loop mission
  A maneuver then believed to be fatal 1927
• First full instrument flight discovery
  Takeoff, set course and landing with the cockpit covered — the basis of all-weather flying 1929
• 100-octane aviation gasoline at Shell discovery
  He forced the refining investment before any aircraft needed the fuel 1935
• The Doolittle Raid mission
  16 B-25s launched from the carrier Hornet against the Japanese home islands 1942
• Eighth Air Force fighter-release policy other
  Escorts freed to hunt the Luftwaffe rather than stay with the bombers 1944

• 1910 aged ~14 Sees his first aircraft at the Los Angeles air meet at Dominguez Field He was a schoolboy in Los Angeles, lately of Nome.
• September 4, 1922 aged 25 Crosses the continent in 21 hours and 19 minutes Pablo Beach, Florida, to Rockwell Field, California, in a DH-4 with early navigational instruments.
• June 1925 aged 28 Takes a doctorate in aeronautics from MIT The first such degree awarded in the United States. He had finished the master's in a single year.
• September 1929 aged 32 Flies from takeoff to landing on instruments alone Cockpit covered, nothing visible outside. The flight made all-weather airline operations practical and won him the Harmon Trophy.
• 1932 aged ~36 Wins the Thompson Trophy in the Gee Bee R-1 and quits racing He already held the Schneider from 1925 and the first Bendix from 1931. His reason for stopping: he had yet to hear of anyone in the work dying of old age.
• April 18, 1942 aged 45 Leads 16 B-25s off the carrier Hornet against Japan No aircraft returned to the ship. Doolittle bailed out over China and expected a court-martial.
• May 19, 1942 aged 45 Receives the Medal of Honor from Franklin Roosevelt at the White House He was promoted two grades the day after the raid, skipping colonel.
• January 6, 1944 aged 47 Takes command of the Eighth Air Force He released the escort fighters to hunt ahead of the bomber formations.
• April 4, 1985 aged 88 Promoted to full general by Ronald Reagan, 43 years after Tokyo The rank was later ruled honorary only.

• Charles Lindbergh 1902–1974
  Aviator who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. introduced to Goddard by
• Chuck Yeager 1923–2020
  Air Force test pilot who first exceeded the speed of sound in level flight in 1947. flew fighters under his command
• Theodore von Karman 1881–1963
  Aerodynamics, the Karman vortex street, and the founding of JPL fellow aeronautical scientist
• Eddie Rickenbacker 1890–1973
  World War I ace of aces and longtime head of Eastern Air Lines earlier airman of the same service