In 1929 "Jimmy" Doolittle made the first completely blind take-off and landing proving the practicality of instrument flight. Doolittle was unique in aviation with a doctorate degree in aeronautics from MIT, but his piloting feats eclipsed his scientific work. In 1942, he organized and led the raid on Tokyo made famous by the book and movie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The raid consisted of sixteen B-25 medium bombers launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Ten years earlier he won the Thompson Air Trophy flying the highly-advanced Gee Bee Racer, one of the few pilots in the thirties to have raced these planes and survived.
Having pioneered instrument flight in the twenties, raced the most dangerous planes in the thirties, and commanded the most challenging war missions in the forties, he died peacefully in 1995.