JIMMY DOOLITTLE
Looking Back at 80
Barrett Tillman
Jimmy Doolittle remains one of the most significant figures in the history of powered flight. His accomplishments are legendary, from record-setting flights and air-racing victories to pioneering experiments to academics to a storied war-time career as a combatant and a commander. He may have been the finest, smartest, most accomplished airman in the century following the Wright Brothers. As historian and Doolittle associate Barrett Tillman says, "General Jimmy was a rare combination of hot hands and cool head."
Tillman's extensive 1976 interview with Doolittle (then working full time at age seventy-nine) contains rare insight into the aviator and the man. Though the subject of at least three biographies and a memoir, plus numerous accounts of the Tokyo Raid, Doolittle's interview touches upon personal and professional aspects seldom addressed elsewhere.
Responding to probing questions, Doolittle describes not only some of the historic aircraft he flew, but some of the people associated with them. They include his scientific relationship with the Sperry Gyroscope Company, leading to instrument flight, and the legerdemain he employed to midwife high-octane gasoline between Shell Oil and the U.S. Army.
"Looking Back at 80" remains a valuable resource forty years on.
Looking Back at 80
Barrett Tillman
Jimmy Doolittle remains one of the most significant figures in the history of powered flight. His accomplishments are legendary, from record-setting flights and air-racing victories to pioneering experiments to academics to a storied war-time career as a combatant and a commander. He may have been the finest, smartest, most accomplished airman in the century following the Wright Brothers. As historian and Doolittle associate Barrett Tillman says, "General Jimmy was a rare combination of hot hands and cool head."
Tillman's extensive 1976 interview with Doolittle (then working full time at age seventy-nine) contains rare insight into the aviator and the man. Though the subject of at least three biographies and a memoir, plus numerous accounts of the Tokyo Raid, Doolittle's interview touches upon personal and professional aspects seldom addressed elsewhere.
Responding to probing questions, Doolittle describes not only some of the historic aircraft he flew, but some of the people associated with them. They include his scientific relationship with the Sperry Gyroscope Company, leading to instrument flight, and the legerdemain he employed to midwife high-octane gasoline between Shell Oil and the U.S. Army.
"Looking Back at 80" remains a valuable resource forty years on.
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