“...I never heard of Spaatz doing that! And Spaatz was no drunken gymnast!” [rlmorel, post 56]
My memory might be at fault. Been a long time since I read any of the histories of the period.
After posting my first comment, I began wondering if the demo pilot was Ira Eaker.
USAAF leaders were a singularly daring bunch. And lucky. The interwar years brought many challenges, technical, bureaucratic, political, and PA-wise.
They sure were an intrepid bunch, no doubt!
Another great bio to read is about Curtis LeMay. He has, IMO, been unfairly ridiculed and pilloried.
He made a lot of hard decisions that turned out to be exactly the right ones, especially the decision to begin bombing Japan at 8,000-10,000 feet instead of 20,000-30,000 feet.
They thought Lemay was sending them on suicide missions at that lower altitude. But he was right, and got the job done.