"I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" *

CXVIII

James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle (1896-1993) is most famous for leading the “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” air raid against Japan in April 1942. But among students of aviation history he is also famous for setting new world speed records in flight and for being the first man to fly “blind” by instruments alone, an accomplishment which led to a quantum leap in aviation. 

 James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle

Doolittle was born in California but grew up in Nome, Alaska, where his father was a carpenter and gold miner. Around the age of 14, Doolittle accompanied his father to an air show and saw his first airplanes and dirigibles; he was captivated. Shortly thereafter, Jimmy’s parents separated and Jimmy went to live with his mother in Los Angeles. At sixteen he built a glider to which he attached an engine. It flew, but poorly, and was wrecked when it crash-landed --- Doolittle later turned down a membership in the Early Birds, an exclusive organization of people who’d flown before World War I, explaining rather humorously that what he’d achieved that day was anything but “controlled flight.” It was the first of scores of crashes that Doolittle would walk away from largely unscathed. He also became an early member of the Caterpillar Club, pilots who’d used a parachute, so-called for the silkworms that produced the fabric. 

Instrument, or “blind” flying was a necessity if aviation was ever to mature past its childhood. Pilots needed to be able to fly in inoptimal weather, at night, and across great stretches of featureless ocean. Doolittle’s first all-instrument flight under the leather hood lasted only 15 minutes, but it proved blind flying was practicable. The second pilot’s controls would only unlock if the plane flew erratically

 

An indifferent student, Jimmy made do by boxing semi-professionally, and by working summers in the mines, including Nevada’s famous Comstock Lode near Virginia City. He seemed destined for a roughneck’s life, but his mother insisted he get an education. He enrolled in the University of California’s School of Mines as an engineering student. Public colleges at the time were cheap or free, and Jimmy did well, though he continued mineworking and boxing for pocket money. 

When World War I began, Doolittle dropped out of college (he later discovered that students who’d filled out the proper forms were granted their degrees, and so he attained his B.S.). In The Army he applied for flight training, and was so adept that he quickly became an instructor. His flying skills and teaching ability were so valuable to the nascent Air Corps that he remained in the United States rather than being sent overseas. And so he “missed” the war. 

Rather than mustering out in 1918, he remained in the Army, rising to become the Director of the USAAC’s Flight Test Division. The Army allowed him to continue his education as well. He received a Master’s in Aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1924, and the first Doctorate of Aeronautical Engineering (Sc.D.) ever issued in the United States, in 1925, thus becoming “Doctor Doolittle.”

Doolittle never thought much of his Doctoral dissertation, which the Review Committee asked him to rewrite “in a more erudite fashion,” but he was justly proud of his Master’s thesis which demonstrated that aircraft (which could move simultaneously on three axes) could confuse the human vestibular system, leading to pilot disorientation. A pilot, believing he was flying straight and true might in fact at that moment be augering in in an inverted dive. Pilots had been taught not to rely on their instruments for the first quarter-century of flight, but Doolittle showed that instrumentation could save a pilot’s (and his passengers’) lives. Among the recommendations of his thesis (and the work he did thereafter) was to replace barometric altimeters (which worked on air pressure like barometers and measured an airplane’s altitude in feet above sea level) with radio altimeters (which bounced a signal off the earth’s surface and measured altitude in feet above the landforms passing beneath).  A barometric altimeter in a plane hangared at a Denver airport would show the plane at 5,280 feet; a radio altimeter would show an altitude of 0  

As Chief Test Pilot for the Army, Doolittle risked his life every day going aloft in prototype airplanes that sometimes fell apart in mid-flight (in these years, before even the introduction of the wind tunnel for testing, the only way to see what a plane could stand was to fly it until it began to collapse). 

He also raced planes in air shows under the Army’s aegis, and won every major and most minor racing trophies. His most famous race came in 1932, when he flew the Gee Bee R-1 for the Thompson Trophy for a new level flight speed record of 296 miles per hour. 

Most people thought Jimmy would die flying the Gee Bee. Many pilots had. Gee Bees were fast, maneuverable, and dangerous as hell. They all had huge wings and a tiny empennage, and thus small control surfaces that responded in a hair-trigger manner. Even slight variations in a pilot’s pressure holding the stick could send a Gee Bee into wild gyrations. Doolittle’s award-winning flight did not begin well when the Gee Bee’s huge engine caught fire while being started. 

Although Doolittle was ostensibly quoted just after the race saying, "She is the sweetest ship I've ever flown. She is perfect in every respect . . .” "Doolittle later wrote, “It was the most dangerous plane I ever flew.”  

 

The Gee Bee R-1. Note the huge engine, the tiny rearward cockpit and the virtually nonexistent tail surfaces. The plane resembled nothing so much as a bomb with wings ---  and it acted like one

Not long after the Thompson Race he retired from racing at the behest of his two young sons and wife, Josephine (always referred to as “Joe” with the “e”). He announced publicly: "I have yet to hear anyone engaged in this work dying of old age."  

He retired from the Army at the same time, taking a job in private industry. He did, however, become an Air Reservist, and was jumped from Second Lieutenant to Major as a result, bypassing a Captaincy. In private industry he worked to improve aviation fuels (introducing the first 100-plus octane gasolines) and on improving flight instruments. His “blind” flight at Mitchel Field on Long Island paved the way for practical long-distance air travel.** He is also credited with discovering the Jet Stream.***

When World War II began, Jimmy returned to active service, this time as a Colonel (he bypassed a Lieutenant Colonelcy, to some fellow officers’ annoyance; they believed he was being shown favoritism, and it was true that he was good friends with General Hap Arnold (who had founded Pan American Airways back in 1927). Jimmy’s first mission was to fly fully-loaded Mitchell B-25 medium bombers off the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet in order to bomb sites in Japan. Getting a fully-loaded bomber off the relatively short flight deck of an aircraft carrier was an assignment tailor-made for Doolittle, and the Raid was successful.

The U.S.S. Hornet (CV-8) was the staging ship for the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942. She was later sunk by the Japanese, who, hating what she had done, called her the “Blue Ghost.” She was replaced within months by another Hornet (CV-12) much to America’s delight and Japan’s horror. Hornet (CV-8), lost in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942, was the last full-sized U.S. aircraft carrier sunk by the Japanese Navy

For many years it was believed that the success of the Doolittle Raid was mostly psychological: In April 1942, it was seen as a quick left jab back at Japan, which had devastated Pearl Harbor just seventeen weeks before. It restored America’s fighting spirit. The Japanese, who considered their home islands inviolable were shocked indeed. However, documents more recently declassified show that the Raid did in fact alter the course of the war; the Japanese retained far more troops for home defense than they had originally planned, and Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack advanced his plans to attack Midway before they were fully matured. Midway, the June 1942 battle wherein the Japanese lost most of their naval air arm, was the beginning of the end of the Empire of Japan.

The Doolittle B-25Bs aboard the Hornet

Doolittle’s was the first plane to leave the Hornet on April 18, 1942. It was a tough assignment. The seas were heaving as much as 40 feet, the day was stormy, and the task force had been discovered by the Japanese, leading to an early liftoff, 600 nautical miles from Japan instead of the 400 anticipated by planners. Although all the planes bombed their targets successfully, not one of them reached their destination in China. Out of fuel, most ditched or crashed along the Chinese coast. Only one American died in the Raid itself, but several were taken prisoner by the Japanese and were later executed

Forgotten History:  After the Raid the Japanese turned their fury on the Chinese for aiding the American fliers.

After the Raid, Doolittle was given the command of the Twelfth Air Force, the Northwest African Air Force, the 15^th Air Force, and “The Mighty 8th” Air Force in turn. He pressed hard for greater long-range fighter production to protect the B-17, B-24, B-25 and B-26 bombers in use in the European Theatre of Operations; bomber losses, which averaged 25% dropped dramatically once the P-38, the P-47, and the P-51 (among other fighters) came on line. 

The P-38 Lightning was distinctive, fast and rugged. It was the earliest American fighter used as a long-range bomber escort

The P-47 Thunderbolt (called “The Jug”) was a tough, heavy fighter capable of taking --- and inflicting --- tremendous battle damage

The P-51 Mustang is still considered one of the finest aircraft ever designed. In its “Red Tail” livery it was the plane of the Tuskeegee Airmen (the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces), a segregated air unit made up entirely of African-Americans. Although it was long believed that the Red Tails never lost an escort, recent declassification of records indicates that the Red Tails lost between 25-30 bombers, still an amazingly low number for air combat conditions in the ETO. Doolittle advocated integrating the Armed Services   

After the war, Jimmy returned to Reserve status, but was frequently consulted about everything from morale issues in the Army to the operations of the CIA. He was an ardent supporter of integrating the Armed Forces. 

Doolittle won many medals, including the Medal of Honor (for the Raid), three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Air Medal, and numerous foreign awards as well. In movies he has been portrayed by Spencer Tracy and Alec Baldwin. 

Spencer Tracy as Jimmy Doolittle in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1943) a classic wartime morale-booster

Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Doolittle in Pearl Harbor (2001)

In 1985, he was made a four star Reserve General. He died in California in 1993. Of old age.   

General Doolittle being awarded his fourth star by President Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater. Doolittle was only 5’ 4”.  Of the stocky General it was said, “You could do little to belittle Doolittle.”

*The title of this post is taken from Doolittle’s excellent autobiography.

**Mitchel Field in Uniondale, New York, was not named for General William “Billy” Mitchell (two ells) the earliest proponent of military air power, though the Mitchell B-25 bombers used by Doolittle in the Tokyo Raid were. The airfield was named instead for a hapless young former Mayor of New York City, John Mitchel (one ell) who left office to enroll in the Air Corps in 1917 and was killed in pilot training when he looped without wearing his safety harness and fell to his death from midair.

***Different sources claim that Harold Gatty discovered the Jet Stream. It’s also possible that previous pilots had encountered the fast-moving stratospheric air current before Doolittle and / or Gatty, but Gatty is always credited with naming it.