12/14/1896: James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle was born in CA. Famous for the eponymous #WWII Raid on Tokyo, he was first a pioneer in @usairforce research & dev and was the prototype for the modern test pilot-engineer. A thread... @AFResearchLab @airpowercradle @FlightTestFact

2/When US entered #WWI Doolittle joined Army Signal Corps, learned to fly, & served as a stateside flight instructor, partly at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, site of @WrightPattAFB Area A, a few miles from the new Air Service experimental engineering facility @McCookField

3/Doolittle excelled as a pilot, with a winning personality, an outstanding mechanical aptitude, & legendary determination, making him a rising star in the contracted Interwar-period Air Service. Made 1st transcontinental flight <1 day in Sep 1922 (pic)

4/In Nov 22, Doolittle joined the Air Service Engineering School's 4th class @McCookField. @AfitCsra Shown back row, far right. He again excelled & earned a subsequent assignment to @MIT via the Air Service, completing a Masters in aero engineering in 1 year.

5/For his masters thesis, he conceived, planned, conducted, & analyzed a program of "Accelerations in Flight," to determine g-forces on aircraft to better engineer them. He was his own test pilot, using a Fokker PW-7, @McCookField P-326, & did all flights at McCook Field.

7/While his focus was the plane, he observed pilot response to G-forces, perhaps 1st systematic such study. W/no formal aero med research org, his data went unused. Disagreed w/flight docs' belief that vision was last sense to go, he said it was 1st. He was right. @Aero_Med

8/He returned to MIT, earning probably the 1st ScD in aero engineering in US, went back to McCook Field to join the cadres of professional test pilots there for its last few years. Also served as Air Race pilot w/great success.

9/ 5-25-1927: Doolittle became 1st pilot to perform an outside loop, in a Curtiss P-1B Hawk, at newly-opened Wright Field @WrightPattAFB that replaced @McCookField (Doolittle performed at dedication). 2nd attempt, in Cleveland 1929, tore wings off, Doolittle parachuted safely

10/ 9-24-1929: Doolittle was 1st to perform a completely "blind" flight, using instruments only from takeoff to landing, using system dev by Natl Bur of Standards @NIST, had safety pilot aboard. Competed w/similar work at Wright Field @AFResearchLab under Albert Hegenberger.

11/ Albert Hegenberger made 1st SOLO blind flight, from Wright Field, in 1932. Key to both flights was use of radio direction finding equipment Hegenberger started dev @McCookField years earlier & used for 1st nonstop flight from CA-Hawaii in 1927.

12/Doolittle was reserve pilot during '30s, stopped Air Racing after flying infamous GeeBee (pic), declared racing outlived usefulness. Worked for Shell Oil promoting aviation gasoline, esp. 100-octane AvGas, dev under Wright Field Power Plant Lab @AFResearchLab.

13/Start of #WWII, returned to Wright Field to help convert industry to war footing, thus the iconic WF spearhead patch on his A-2 flight jacket worn during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, which earned him the Medal of Honor (already had 2 DFCs)

14/He survived the raid, & went on to head 8th Air Force. Remained a lifelong advocate for aero research & development. Granted 4-stars late in life, died at age 96 in 1993. (The AF Life Cycle Management Center Acquisition Complex is named for him) @airpowercradle
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