To be fair to everyone, Doolittle made his reputation in the military - first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight, winning the Schneider Cup in 1924, first outside loop, development of the artificial horizon that made instrument flight possible, proving it by making an entire flight under the hood and winning the Harmon Trophy for doing it, then winning the Thompson Trophy in 1932. Shell thought when they hired him that they had a great PR guy for their continuing business in aviation gas. Doolittle took the job because he wanted to convince them to develop and produce 100-octane avgas, which was thought impossible (the Germans and Japanese never managed to do it). He was really never "out" of the service.
Can you imagine a Shell Oil vice -president today giving up his position to return to military service ?
Lt. Colonel Doolittle certainly didn’t live up to his name!
Thanks all for sharing..
To be fair to everyone, Doolittle made his reputation in the military - first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight, winning the Schneider Cup in 1924, first outside loop, development of the artificial horizon that made instrument flight possible, proving it by making an entire flight under the hood and winning the Harmon Trophy for doing it, then winning the Thompson Trophy in 1932. Shell thought when they hired him that they had a great PR guy for their continuing business in aviation gas. Doolittle took the job because he wanted to convince them to develop and produce 100-octane avgas, which was thought impossible (the Germans and Japanese never managed to do it). He was really never "out" of the service.
Always more to the story.Thanks.