James Doolittle Tribute
by John Wills
Title
James Doolittle Tribute
Artist
John Wills
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Artworks
Description
A tribute to James H. Doolittle, widely known for his historic tale of being the leader of 16 B-25's launched from an aircraft carrier on the mainland of Japan, in retaliation for Pearl, which gained much needed momentum for the U.S. in April of 1942. In my opinion, one of the most important historical figures to come out of WW2.
Doolittle's most important contribution to aeronautical technology was the development of instrument flying. He was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved unless pilots developed the ability to control and navigate aircraft in flight, from takeoff run to landing rollout, regardless of the range of vision from the cockpit. Doolittle was the first to envision that a pilot could be trained to use instruments to fly through fog, clouds, precipitation of all forms, darkness, or any other impediment to visibility; and in spite of the pilot's own possibly convoluted motion sense inputs. Even at this early stage, the ability to control aircraft was getting beyond the motion sense capability of the pilot. That is, as aircraft became faster and more maneuverable, pilots could become seriously disoriented without visual cues from outside the cockpit, because aircraft could move in ways that pilots' senses could not accurately decipher.
Doolittle was also the first to recognize these psycho-physiological limitations of the human senses (particularly the motion sense inputs, i.e., up, down, left, right). He initiated the study of the subtle interrelationships between the psychological effects of visual cues and motion senses. His research resulted in programs that trained pilots to read and understand navigational instruments. A pilot learned to "trust his instruments," not his senses, as visual cues and his motion sense inputs (what he sensed and "felt") could be incorrect or unreliable.
In 1929, he became the first pilot to take off, fly and land an airplane using instruments alone, without a view outside the cockpit. Having returned to Mitchel Field that September, he assisted in the development of fog flying equipment. He helped develop, and was then the first to test, the now universally used artificial horizon and directional gyroscope. He attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical.
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December 17th, 2016
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Viewed 906 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 04/19/2024 at 10:31 AM
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Comments (2)
Douglas Castleman
Very cool, John...his autobiography is a great book. I've know and have done paintings for one of his grandsons, Jimmy Doolittle III, now a retired test pilot.
John Wills replied:
Hey thanks Douglas. I think I'd quite like to read that autobiography someday. And why am I not surprised you've done paintings for his family.. way to go!
Denise Fulmer
A pioneer, that he was....certainly very well accomplished and well decorated. You are a genius in bringing all this together. Very inspiring, John! F/L/t
John Wills replied:
Glad to inspire in any way I can... you could be doing this too, just need to research whatever you want, look for public domain images without copyright, and start putting together images. It's time consuming, but not too hard. :)
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