4/15/2023 0 Comments James cleveland air mail pilot![]() In 2003, he topped Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine's list of the greatest pilots of all time, and ten years later, Flying magazine ranked Doolittle sixth on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation. He was eventually promoted to general in 1985, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan 43 years after the Doolittle Raid. Doolittle was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1967, eight years after retirement and only five years after the Hall was founded. He retired from the Air Force in 1959 but remained active in many technical fields. It was a major morale booster for the United States and Doolittle was celebrated as a hero, making him one of the most important national figures of the war.ĭoolittle was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe. The raid used 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers with reduced armament to decrease weight and increase range, each with a crew of five and no escort fighter aircraft. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on some of the Japanese main islands on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a flying instructor during World War I and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, but he was recalled to active duty during World War II. In 1929, he pioneered the use of "blind flying", where a pilot relies on flight instruments alone, which later won him the Harmon Trophy and made all-weather airline operations practical. He also earned a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925, the first issued in the United States. ![]() Raised in Nome, Alaska, Doolittle studied as an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1922. He also made early coast-to-coast flights, record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop and flight-test instrument flying. James Harold Doolittle (Decem– September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his daring raid on Japan during World War II. Air race pilot, test pilot, Shell Oil Company VP and director, chairman of Space Technology Laboratories and NACA
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