Boyhood heroes

Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, I had three heroes. Two were fictional fliers on ’50s TV: the crime-fighting aviator Captain Midnight and USAF Colonel Ed McCauley, the brave astronaut leading Men Into Space. In contrast, my third hero was a real person, and even then I thought he was the most remarkable of all.

Born in December 1896, Jimmy Doolittle spent his early years in Nome, Alaska, a true frontier back then. It helped shape his personality. During World War I, he trained as an Army pilot and was such a natural that, to his great frustration, the U.S. Army Air Service kept him stateside to train others.

Between the wars, Doolittle set many records including being the first person to cross the United States in less than 24 hours (1924) and the first to do so in less than 12 hours (1931). He also became the first and only flier ever to win all three of the major pre-WWII air races (the Schneider, Bendix, and Thompson). He flew the hottest Gee-Bee racer of all and lived to tell about it.

In the 1920s, Doolittle earned masters and doctorate degrees in aeronautical engineering from MIT, and led the pioneering team that in 1929 performed history’s first blind flight. Flying under a hood, he took off, flew a rectangular pattern, and landed again using new gyro instruments, radio-navigational aids, and flight procedures he had helped define. Later he pushed the United States to manufacture 100-octane aviation gasoline. The British in part credit their survival during the Battle of Britain to the extra 300 hp that this higher octane fuel gave their Hurricanes and Spitfires.

A little more than four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into World War II, Doolittle commanded the single most dramatic mission flown by U.S. forces in that conflict. On April 18, 1942, he led 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers off the deck of the USS Hornet to attack military targets on the Japanese mainland. For that, he was promoted from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general (skipping full colonel) and awarded the Medal of Honor. By the time WWII ended in 1945, he had commanded three of the component U.S. Army Air Forces—including the legendary Eighth Air Force, the greatest air armada in history—and was a lieutenant general. A fourth star came later in retirement.

If you could point to any one person and say, "Here's the greatest pilot ever," it would probably be Jimmy Doolittle. I was hugely honored to know him because my godfather was the copilot of the eighth B-25 off the deck of the Hornet, and I later prepared exhibits about him while a curator at the National Air and Space Museum. Doolittle died at 96 in 1993. He is still my hero today.

First rollout...

Welcome to the debut of Their Dreams, My Thoughts, a new aviation blog offering a mix of history, technology, glimpses of flight’s pioneers, and fun anecdotes about famous aviation personalities. I’ll provide new ways for us to view familiar flying machines, speculate on today’s aerospace scene, share favorite aviation photos, and even do the occasional flying book or film review. In short, you'll find just about anything here that relates to flying machines and the people in and around them.

Please feel free to comment because I’d love to know your thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams about flight. I’ll also count on you to further broaden my horizons as we collectively spread our wings over a fascinating subject area. Questions are welcome, as is your help in answering them.

Aviation history is my background. While I love all flying machines, rotorcraft included, my primary interest is aviation’s technological evolution. You already know that if you’ve seen my latest book.

I’ll be posting regularly so please subscribe to be sure you don’t miss me. In the meantime, keep the wings level and true, and happy landings!