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95-513: ARPS may refer to: Aerospace Research Pilot School Amherst-Pelham Regional School District Associate of the Royal Photographic Society Auction rate preferred stock Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title ARPS . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

190-710: A Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922, and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period. On September 4, 1922, he made the first of many pioneering flights, flying a de Havilland DH-4 —which was equipped with early navigational instruments—in the first cross-country flight, from Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach ), Florida , to Rockwell Field, San Diego , California, in 21 hours and 19 minutes, making only one refueling stop at Kelly Field. The U.S. Army awarded him

285-550: A Bachelor of Arts in 1922. That year, he made the first cross-country flight in an Airco DH.4 , and in 1925, was awarded a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the first such doctorate degree issued in the United States. In 1927, he performed the first outside loop , thought at the time to be a fatal aerobatic maneuver , and two years later, in 1929, pioneered

380-749: A Laird Super Solution biplane. In 1932, Doolittle set the world's high-speed record for land planes at 296 miles per hour (476 km/h) in the Shell Speed Dash. Later, he took the Thompson Trophy race at Cleveland in the notorious Gee Bee R-1 racer with a speed averaging 252 miles per hour (406 km/h). After having won the three big air racing trophies of the time, the Schneider, Bendix, and Thompson, he officially retired from air racing, stating, "I have yet to hear anyone engaged in this work dying of old age." In April 1934, Doolittle

475-744: A test pilot and aeronautical engineer at McCook Field, Doolittle entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In March 1924, he conducted aircraft acceleration tests at McCook Field, which became the basis of his master's thesis and led to his second Distinguished Flying Cross. He received his SM degree in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924. Because the Army had given him two years to get his degree and he had done it in just one, he immediately started working on his Sc.D. in Aeronautics, which he received in June 1925. His doctorate in aeronautical engineering

570-442: A Regular Army commission as a 1st Lieutenant, Air Service, on July 1, 1920. On May 10, 1921, he was engineering officer and pilot for an expedition recovering a plane that had force-landed in a Mexican canyon on February 10 during a transcontinental flight attempt by Alexander Pearson Jr. Doolittle reached the plane on May 3 and found it serviceable, then returned May 8 with a replacement motor and four mechanics. The oil pressure of

665-475: A controlled flight, a condition that is unrecoverable in the T-38. The report stated that contributing factors to the crash were a structural fatigue failure or a structural break in a critical component or bolt, and a maintenance error in which a nut or cotter pin did not properly secure a bolt connecting two critical components. Citing two historical cases of rudder failure, the report concluded that maintenance error

760-534: A flight leader and gunnery instructor. At Kelly Field, he served with the 104th Aero Squadron and with the 90th Aero Squadron of the 1st Surveillance Group . His detachment of the 90th Aero Squadron was based at Eagle Pass , patrolling the Mexican border. Recommended by three officers for retention in the Air Service during demobilization at the end of the war, Doolittle qualified by examination and received

855-671: A joking message: "You're slipping Jimmy. There's one crabapple tree and one stable still standing." Maj. Gen. Doolittle took command of the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in November 1943. On June 10, he flew as co-pilot with Jack Sims, fellow Tokyo Raider, in a B-26 Marauder of the 320th Bombardment Group , 442nd Bombardment Squadron on a mission to attack gun emplacements at Pantelleria . Doolittle continued to fly, despite

950-532: A reign of terror so horrendous that missionaries would later dub it 'the Rape of Nancheng.' " evoking memories of the infamous Rape of Nanjing five years before. Less than a month later, the Japanese forces put what remained of the city to the torch. "This planned burning was carried on for three days," one Chinese newspaper reported, "and the city of Nancheng became charred earth." When Japanese troops moved out of

1045-409: A scale that nobody needed since no aircraft existed that required a fuel that nobody made. Some fellow employees would call his effort "Doolittle's million-dollar blunder" but time would prove him correct. Before this the Army had considered 100-octane tests using pure octane but at $ 25 a gallon it did not happen. By 1936 tests at Wright Field using a cheaper alternative to pure octane proved the value of

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1140-524: A string of three air crashes in two months at Elizabeth, New Jersey , the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman , appointed him to lead a presidential commission examining the safety of urban airports. The report "Airports and Their Neighbors" led to zoning requirements for buildings near approaches, early noise control requirements, and initial work on "super airports" with 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runways, suited to 150 ton aircraft. Doolittle

1235-528: A vice president, and later as a director. In the summer of 1946, Doolittle went to Stockholm where he consulted about the " ghost rockets " that had been observed over Scandinavia . In 1947, Doolittle became the first president of the Air Force Association , an organization which he helped create. In 1948, Doolittle advocated the desegregation of the US military. He wrote, "I am convinced that

1330-459: Is an exact science requiring precision flying of the highest caliber. Frequent bad weather and increased air traffic congestion at Wright-Patterson often prevented students from completing their coursework on time. In addition, most USAAF airplanes were by then being manufactured and tested by contractors on the West Coast of the United States . For these and other reasons, Col. Boyd began

1425-565: The 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field , Doolittle saw his first airplane. He attended Los Angeles City College after graduating from Manual Arts High School , together with later film director Frank Capra , in Los Angeles . He entered the University of California, Berkeley , where he studied at the College of Mines . He was a member of Theta Kappa Nu fraternity, which later merged into Lambda Chi Alpha during

1520-707: The AT-6 Texan trainer. Shortly after the first class graduated, the school was redesignated the Flight Section School Branch with an increased focus on academic theory. In 1945, the school moved to Vandalia Municipal Airport (now the Dayton International Airport ), after which it was redesignated the Flight Performance School and placed under the command of Lt. Colonel John R. Muehlberg, who became

1615-509: The Battle of Midway in June 1942. When asked from where the Tokyo raid was launched, President Roosevelt coyly said its base was Shangri-La , a fictional paradise from the popular novel and film Lost Horizon . In the same vein, the U.S. Navy named one of its Essex -class fleet carriers USS  Shangri-La . In July 1942, as a brigadier general —he had been promoted by two grades on

1710-712: The Distinguished Flying Cross . Within days after the transcontinental flight, he was at the Air Service Engineering School (a precursor to the Air Force Institute of Technology ) at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. For Doolittle, the school assignment had special significance: "I had applied for the Engineering School because I thought there should be a better rapport between the aeronautical engineer and

1805-462: The Doolittle Raid , a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on some of the Japanese main islands on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor . The raid used 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers with reduced armament to decrease weight and increase range, each with a crew of five and no escort fighter aircraft. It was a major morale booster for the United States and Doolittle

1900-763: The Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical. In January 1930, Doolittle advised the Army on the construction of Floyd Bennett Field in New York City. Doolittle resigned his regular commission on February 15, 1930, and was commissioned a Major in the Air Reserve Corps a month later, being named manager of the Aviation Department of Shell Oil Company , in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests. While in

1995-624: The National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1967, eight years after retirement and only five years after the Hall was founded. He was eventually promoted to general in 1985, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan 43 years after the Doolittle Raid. In 2003, he topped Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine's list of the greatest pilots of all time, and ten years later, Flying magazine ranked Doolittle sixth on its list of

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2090-877: The Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River , Maryland , and vice versa. Also, the USAF Test Pilot School has an exchange program with the Empire Test Pilots' School at Boscombe Down , England , and the EPNER (École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception), the French Test Pilot's School. Although the United States Armed Forces had been evaluating aircraft since Lt. Benny Foulois flew with Orville Wright in 1909,

2185-699: The RAF 's Empire Test Pilots' School , Colonel Ernest K. Warburton , chief of the Flight Test Section at Wright Field , set about changing the role and status of flight testing in the Army Air Forces . His goals for the flight test community were standardization and independence, which were later realized with the establishment of the Air Technical Command Flight Test Training unit on 9 September 1944 and

2280-763: The Twelfth Air Force , soon to be operating in North Africa. He was promoted to major general in November 1942, and in March 1943 became commanding general of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force , a unified command of U.S. Army Air Force and Royal Air Force units. In September, he commanded a raid against the Italian town of Battipaglia that was so thorough in its destruction that General Carl Andrew Spaatz sent him

2375-689: The Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign (also known as Operation Sei-go) to prevent these eastern coastal provinces of China from being used again for an attack on Japan and to take revenge on the Chinese people. An area of some 20,000 sq mi (50,000 km ) was laid waste. "Like a swarm of locusts, they left behind nothing but destruction and chaos," eyewitness Father Wendelin Dunker wrote. The Japanese killed an estimated 10,000 Chinese civilians during their search for Doolittle's men. People who aided

2470-653: The 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in Europe. The other surviving members of the Doolittle raid also went on to new assignments. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor from President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House for planning and leading his raid on Japan. His citation reads: "For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With

2565-560: The 1930s when I met Robert H. Goddard , who laid the foundation [in the US]. ... While with Shell [Oil] I worked with him on the development of a type of [rocket] fuel. ... " Harry Guggenheim , whose foundation sponsored Goddard's work, and Charles Lindbergh , who encouraged Goddard's efforts, arranged for (then Major) Doolittle to discuss with Goddard a special blend of gasoline. Doolittle piloted himself to Roswell, New Mexico in October 1938 and

2660-550: The 51 Heroes of Aviation. He died in 1993 at the age of 96, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Doolittle was born December 14, 1896, in Alameda, California . He spent his youth in Nome, Alaska , where he earned a reputation as a boxer. His parents were Frank Henry Doolittle and Rosa (Rose) Cerenah Doolittle ( née  Shephard ). By 1910, Jimmy Doolittle was attending school in Los Angeles . When his school attended

2755-552: The Air Corps Reserve. During this time, in 1927 he was the first to perform an outside loop , previously thought to be a fatal maneuver. Carried out in a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio, Doolittle executed the dive from 10,000 feet (3,000 m), reached 280 miles per hour (450 km/h), bottomed out upside down, then climbed and completed the loop. Doolittle's most important contribution to aeronautical technology

2850-605: The Army Air Forces in the grade of lieutenant general, a rarity in those days when reserve officers were usually limited to the rank of major general or rear admiral, a restriction that would not end in the US armed forces until the 21st century. He retired from the United States Army on 10 May 1946. On 18 September 1947, his reserve commission as a general officer was transferred to the newly established United States Air Force . Doolittle returned to Shell Oil as

2945-625: The European air war occurred late in 1943—and primarily after he took command of the Eighth Air Force on January 6, 1944 —when he changed the policy of requiring escorting fighters to remain with their bombers at all times. Instead, he permitted escort fighters to fly far ahead of the bombers' combat box formations, allowing them to freely engage the German fighters lying in wait for the bombers. Throughout most of 1944, this tactic negated

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3040-618: The New York area. He won the Schneider Cup race in a Curtiss R3C in 1925 with an average speed of 232 miles per hour (373 km/h). For that feat, Doolittle was awarded the Mackay Trophy in 1926. In April 1926, Doolittle was given a leave of absence to go to South America to perform demonstration flights for Curtiss Aircraft. In Chile , he broke both ankles while demonstrating his acrobatic abilities in an incident that

3135-468: The Reserve, he also returned to temporary active duty with the Army frequently to conduct tests. Doolittle helped influence Shell Oil Company to produce the first quantities of 100 octane aviation gasoline. High octane fuel was crucial to the high-performance planes that were developed in the late 1930s. In 1931, Doolittle won the first Bendix Trophy race from Burbank, California , to Cleveland , in

3230-507: The U.S. Air Force crewed spaceflight program was suspended. Class sizes have been uniformly quite small, with recent classes having about twenty students. The school is a component of the 412th Test Wing of the Air Force Materiel Command . The USAF TPS aims to produce highly adaptive, critical-thinking flight test professionals to lead and conduct full-spectrum tests and evaluations of aerospace weapons, and to be

3325-490: The Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas in mid-August, they left behind a trail of devastation. Chinese estimates put the civilian death toll at 250,000. The Imperial Japanese Army had also spread cholera , typhoid , plague infected fleas and dysentery pathogens. The Japanese biological warfare Unit 731 brought almost 300 pounds (140 kg) of paratyphoid and anthrax to be left in contaminated food and contaminated wells with

3420-629: The aircraft carrier USS Hornet . On April 18, Doolittle and his 16 B-25 crews took off from Hornet , reached Japan, and bombed their targets. Fifteen of the planes then headed for their recovery airfield in China, while one crew chose to land in Russia due to their bomber's unusually high fuel consumption. As did most of the other crewmen who participated in the one-way mission, Doolittle and his crew bailed out safely over China when their B-25 ran out of fuel. By then, they had been flying for about 12 hours, it

3515-608: The aircraft carrier USS  Hornet , with targets in Tokyo , Kobe , Yokohama , Osaka and Nagoya . After training at Eglin Field and Wagner Field in northwest Florida, Doolittle, his aircraft, and volunteer flight crews proceeded to McClellan Field , California for aircraft modifications at the Sacramento Air Depot, followed by a short final flight to Naval Air Station Alameda , California for embarkation aboard

3610-438: The airmen were tortured before they were killed. Father Dunker wrote of the destruction of the town of Ihwang: "They shot any man, woman, child, cow, hog, or just about anything that moved, They raped any woman from the ages of 10–65, and before burning the town they thoroughly looted it ... None of the humans shot were buried either ..." The Japanese entered Nancheng ( Jiangxi ), population 50,000 on June 11, "beginning

3705-430: The apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland." He was also promoted to brigadier general. The Doolittle Raid is viewed by historians as a major morale-building victory for the United States. Although the damage done to Japanese war industry

3800-403: The data were woven into a report that summarized the test and the student's conclusions. Some students were not prepared for the rigorous academics and had to be dropped from enrollment. This situation improved in 1953, when the school was moved out of Air Research and Development Command, which allowed the selection boards to draw from a much larger, USAF-wide, pool of applicants, rather than just

3895-548: The day after the Tokyo attack, bypassing the rank of full colonel —Doolittle was assigned to the nascent Eighth Air Force . This followed his rejection by General Douglas MacArthur as commander of the South West Pacific Area to replace Major General George Brett . Major General Frank Andrews first turned down the position and offered a choice between George Kenney and Doolittle, MacArthur chose Kenney. In September, Doolittle became commanding general of

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3990-426: The designation of "test pilot" was not formally applied until a group of McCook Field pilots was assigned to a flight testing squadron at Wright Field during World War I . Test pilot selection was a seemingly indiscriminate process yielding a mix of experienced pilots who had volunteered for the task, flight instructors who were simply assigned to the job, and the occasional officer fresh from flying school. One of

4085-634: The effectiveness of the twin-engined Zerstörergeschwader heavy fighter wings and single-engined Sturmgruppen of heavily armed Fw 190As by clearing the Luftwaffe 's bomber destroyers from ahead of the bomber formations. After the bombers had hit their targets, the American fighters were free to strafe German airfields, transportation, and other "targets of opportunity" on their return flight to base. These tasks were initially performed with Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts through

4180-413: The end of 1943. They were progressively replaced with the long-ranged North American P-51 Mustangs as the spring of 1944 wore on. Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson asked Doolittle on March 27, 1946, to head a commission on the relationships between officers and enlisted men in the Army called the "Doolittle Board" or the "GI Gripes Board". The Army implemented many of the board's recommendations in

4275-427: The first pilot to take off, fly and land an airplane using instruments alone, without a view outside the cockpit. Having returned to Mitchell Field that September, he helped develop blind-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

4370-451: The first seven months of operation. Taking advantage of the calm morning air, students started the day flying missions to collect test data. Afternoons were spent in the lecture hall, and evenings were devoted to reducing data from the day's flights. Data reduction was dull and labor-intensive, requiring the student to transcribe information recorded on film or oscillograph paper and perform calculations by hand or slide rule . Once reduced,

4465-488: The first to carry the title " commandant ". Under Muehlberg, who in 1944/45 had attended the second course at the newly established ETPS in England, the school increased its fleet with North American P-51 Mustangs , Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , and North American B-25 Mitchells and expanded the curriculum to include a separate four-month stability and control course in addition to the existing performance course. In 1946,

4560-435: The fuel and both Shell and Standard Oil of New Jersey would win the contract to supply test quantities for the Army. By 1938 the price was down to 17.5 cents a gallon, only 2.5 cents more than 87 octane fuel. By the end of WW II, the price would be down to 16 cents a gallon and the U.S. armed forces would be consuming 20 million gallons a day. Doolittle returned to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 1, 1940, with

4655-494: The help of friendly Chinese. Seven crew members lost their lives, four as a result of being captured and murdered by the Japanese and three due to an aircraft crash or while parachuting. Doolittle thought he would be court martialed due to having to launch the raid ahead of schedule after being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat and the loss of all the aircraft. After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army began

4750-407: The high accident rate during the 1940s, and increase the number of productive test flights. In response to the increasing complexity of aircraft and their electronic systems, the school added training programs for flight test engineers and flight test navigators. Between 1962 and 1972, the test pilot school included astronaut training for armed forces test pilots, but these classes were dropped when

4845-484: The independent Flight Test Division in 1945. The AAF now had a formal program of study to train young pilots to become flight test professionals. Under the command of Major Ralph C. Hoewing, the Flight Test Training Unit's curriculum included classroom sessions covering performance flight test theory and piloting techniques. The students then put theory into practice with performance evaluations on

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4940-589: The later stages of the Great Depression . Doolittle took a leave of absence in October 1917 to enlist in the Signal Corps Reserve as a flying cadet; he received ground training at the School of Military Aeronautics (an Army school) on the campus of the University of California , and flight-trained at Rockwell Field , California. Doolittle received his Reserve Military Aviator rating and

5035-622: The latter, Lt. Donald Putt , who would later rise to the rank of lieutenant general, recalled: ...out of the blue, I got orders to report to Dayton...I had not shown any interest in wanting to be a test pilot. Test pilot training was nearly as informal as the selection process with most material directed toward the aeronautical engineers who supervised the tests. Reports and texts of this time provided little guidance regarding how tests should be flown. The best training for test pilots came from practical experience gained while flying as observers and hangar-talk tutorials from other pilots. A test pilot

5130-454: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ARPS&oldid=1004151081 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Aerospace Research Pilot School The TPS was created to formalize and standardize test pilot training, reduce

5225-656: The local test squadrons. Although changes to the curriculum could be made quickly, the acquisition of aircraft for the school remained a perennial challenge for the school's staff. The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star arrived in 1953 and became a staple for the students over the next 23 years. More aircraft types were added during the 1950s, including the Republic F-84 Thunderjet , North American F-86 Sabre , North American F-100 Super Sabre , Martin B-57 Canberra , and Convair F-102 Delta Dagger  —

5320-689: The new motor was inadequate, and Doolittle requested two pressure gauges, using carrier pigeons to communicate. The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Doolittle flew the plane to Del Rio, Texas , himself, taking off from a 400-yard (370 m) airstrip hacked out of the canyon floor. Subsequently, he attended the Air Service Mechanical School at Kelly Field and the Aeronautical Engineering Course at McCook Field, Ohio . Having at last returned to complete his college degree, he earned

5415-420: 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

5510-619: The pilot. It seemed to me that the engineers felt pilots were all a little crazy or else they wouldn't be pilots. The pilots felt the engineers as a group were, if not incompetent, at least not thoroughly acquainted with the pilot's viewpoint—that all the engineers did was zip slide rules back and forth and come out with erroneous results and bad aircraft. I thought from a philosophical point of view that it would be good to have engineers and pilots understand one another better. It seemed desirable to marry these two capabilities in one person—and I wanted to be that person." In July 1923, after serving as

5605-512: The postwar volunteer Army, though many professional officers and noncommissioned officers thought that the Board "destroyed the discipline of the Army". Columnist Hanson Baldwin said that the Doolittle Board "caused severe damage to service effectiveness by recommendations intended to 'democratize' the Army—a concept that is self-contradictory". Doolittle became acquainted with the field of space science in its infancy. He wrote in his autobiography, "I became interested in rocket development in

5700-428: The rank of Major. He was assigned as the assistant district supervisor of the Central Air Corps Procurement District at Indianapolis and Detroit , where he worked with large auto manufacturers on the conversion of their plants to aircraft production. The following August, he went to England as a member of a special mission and brought back information about other countries' air forces and military build-ups. Following

5795-417: The reorganization of the Army Air Corps into the USAAF in June 1941 , Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 2, 1942, and assigned to Army Air Forces Headquarters to plan the first retaliatory air raid on the Japanese homeland following the attack on Pearl Harbor . He volunteered for and received General H.H. Arnold's approval to lead the top-secret attack of 16 B-25 medium bombers from

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5890-555: The requirements of a national space program and what additions were needed to NACA technology. Doolittle, Dr. Hugh Dryden and Stever selected committee members including Dr. Wernher von Braun from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency , Sam Hoffman of Rocketdyne , Abe Hyatt of the Office of Naval Research and Colonel Norman Appold from the USAF missile program, considering their potential contributions to US space programs and ability to educate NACA people in space science. On 5 January 1946, Doolittle reverted to inactive reserve status in

5985-424: The risk of capture, while being privy to the Ultra secret, which was that the German encryption systems had been broken by the British. From January 1944 to September 1945, he held his largest command, the Eighth Air Force (8 AF) in England as a lieutenant general , his promotion date being March 13, 1944, and the highest rank ever held by an active reserve officer in modern times. Doolittle's major influence on

6080-445: The school was officially transferred to Edwards Air Force Base. The enormous dry lake bed, extremely long runways, and clear weather served the USAF and the school well, as aircraft performance continued to increase. The TPS was housed in an old weather-beaten wooden hangar along the flight line of what became known as South Base. Although the quarters were spartan, the weather was superb with only two flying days lost due to weather in

6175-531: The school's airplanes. As the Air Force gradually developed an aerospace doctrine during this period, a small cadre began to establish the criteria for additional coursework aimed at qualifying TPS graduates for the tasks of an astronaut. On Oct. 12, 1961, the Test Pilot School has redesignated the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), with the curriculum, expanded to a full year, divided into Phase I (Experimental Test Pilot Course) and Phase II (Aerospace Research Pilot Course). Between 1962 and 1975,

6270-416: The school's first delta-winged airplane. In 1955, the school was renamed the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Pilot School, and a year later, moved into its present location on the Main Base facility. This new building, built at a cost of $ 156,000, was the first and only structure designed specifically for the purposes of the school. In 1956, the school chose an official emblem, featuring a slide rule in front of

6365-417: The silhouette of a climbing jet, and a motto, Scientia est Virtus — Latin for "Knowledge is Power". The new logo emphasized the school's role in preparing students with both the technical theory and flying skills indispensable for evaluating modern aircraft. The new logo also replaced the unofficial badge of Dr. Howland Owl, a character from the popular Pogo comic strip, that appeared on the noses of many of

6460-485: The solution to the situation is to forget that they are colored." Industry was in the process of integrating, Doolittle said, "and it is going to be forced on the military. You are merely postponing the inevitable and you might as well take it gracefully." In March 1951, Doolittle was appointed a special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force , serving as a civilian in scientific matters which led to Air Force ballistic missile and space programs. In 1952, following

6555-418: The student pilot Major Mark Paul Graziano and severely injuring the student navigator Major Lee Vincent Jones. An accident investigation determined that the crash was caused when the aircraft's rudder operating mechanism disconnected the flight controls from the rudder actuators and caused the rudder to deflect 30° to the left. This induced an uncontrollable yaw and a resulting roll, causing the aircraft to depart

6650-404: The test pilot school expanded its role to include astronaut training for armed forces test pilots. Thirty-seven TPS graduates were selected for the U.S. space program, and 26 earned astronaut's wings by flying in the X-15 , Gemini , Apollo , and Space Shuttle programs. On 21 May 2009, a T-38 Talon from the test pilot school on a training flight crashed 12 miles north of Edwards AFB, killing

6745-430: The test pilot school was moved again to nearby Patterson Field and Colonel Albert Boyd was assigned as chief of the Flight Test Division. Col. Boyd profoundly influenced both the school and the character of its future AAF test pilots with his insistence on precision flying skills and discipline. A graduate of the school in 1946, Major Bob Cardenas , later summarized Col. Boyd's influence: The old-fashioned version of

6840-521: The test pilot school. As of September 2023 , Colonel James Valpiani is the commandant of the school. TPS has produced many notable alumni, including astronauts, record-setting aviators, and senior Air Force leaders. This article contains information that came from a public domain government website 34°55′02″N 117°54′00″W  /  34.9171°N 117.9000°W  / 34.9171; -117.9000 Jimmy Doolittle James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993)

6935-424: The test pilot wrapped up in its hazy aura of glamorous high adventure is gone. No more do they judge a test pilot's flying skill by his ability to tear the wings of the aircraft in a screaming terminal velocity dive. This has been replaced by flying abilities capable of holding very close tolerances to airspeed, altitude, and rate of climb while engaged in reading data, adjusting power, and writing down observations. It

7030-432: The transfer of all flight test operations, including the test pilot school, to Muroc Army Air Field. next to Rogers Dry Lake in the desert of southern California . The school continued operations at Patterson Field, and 1947, had the first United States Air Force class and the first class to fly jets. The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star would provide jet performance training at the school until 1954. In 1949, this school

7125-583: The tremendous potential of rocketry. In 1956, Doolittle was appointed chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) because the previous chairman, Jerome C. Hunsaker , thought Doolittle to be more sympathetic to the rocket, which was increasing in importance as a scientific tool as well as a weapon. The NACA Special Committee on Space Technology was organized in January 1958 and chaired by Guy Stever to determine

7220-560: The use of "blind flying", where a pilot relies on flight instruments alone, which later won him the Harmon Trophy and made all-weather airline operations practical. Doolittle was a flying instructor during World War I and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps , but was recalled to active duty during World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of

7315-402: The withdrawal of the army from areas around Yushan, Kinhwa and Futsin. Around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their biological weapons attack rebounded on their own forces. Doolittle went on to fly more combat missions as commander of the 12th Air Force in North Africa, for which he was awarded four Air Medals. He later commanded

7410-464: The world's premier educational and training center for theoretical and applied flight test engineering. All candidates require secret clearance. As of May 2015, the minimum admission requirements for application to the USAF TPS are: From time to time, students are selected to attend different test pilot schools in an exchange program between test cultures. Toward this end, students can be sent to

7505-560: 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 relationships 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

7600-445: Was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II , known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He made early coast-to-coast flights and record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop flight-test instrument flying . Doolittle grew up in Nome, Alaska . He attended the University of California, Berkeley , where he graduated with

7695-634: Was appointed a life member of the MIT Corporation , the university's board of trustees, an uncommon permanent appointment, and served as an MIT Corporation Member for 40 years. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Doolittle to perform a study of the Central Intelligence Agency ; the resulting work was known as the Doolittle Report, 1954 , and was classified for a number of years. From 1957 to 1958, he

7790-585: Was celebrated as a hero, making him one of the most important national figures of the war. Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe. He retired from the Air Force in 1959 but remained active in many technical fields. Doolittle was inducted into

7885-542: Was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army on March 11, 1918. During World War I , Doolittle stayed in the United States as a flight instructor and performed his war service at Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Center ("Camp Dick"), Texas ; Wright Field, Ohio ; Gerstner Field, Louisiana ; Rockwell Field, California; Kelly Field, Texas , and Eagle Pass, Texas . Doolittle served at Rockwell as

7980-450: Was given a tour of Goddard's workshop and a "short course" in rocketry and space travel. He then wrote a memo, including a rather detailed description of Goddard's rocket. In closing he said, "interplanetary transportation is probably a dream of the very distant future, but with the moon only a quarter of a million miles away—who knows!" In July 1941 he wrote Goddard that he was still interested in rocket propulsion research. The Army, however,

8075-515: Was his early advancement of instrument flying . He was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved until 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

8170-484: Was interested only in JATO at this point. Doolittle was concerned about the state of rocketry in the US and remained in touch with Goddard. Shortly after World War II, Doolittle spoke to an American Rocket Society conference at which a large number interested in rocketry attended. The topic was Robert Goddard's work. He later stated that at that time "... we [the aeronautics field in the US] had not given much credence to

8265-537: Was killed in the crash of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing bomber. Captain Edwards, who had recently earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton , typified the new breed of test pilot of which Cardenas had written — one who combined the talents of a highly skilled pilot with the technical expertise of an engineer. Amman completed his work and on 4 February 1951,

8360-477: Was known as Night of the Pisco Sours. Despite having both ankles in casts, Doolittle put his Curtiss P-1 Hawk through aerial maneuvers that outdid the competition. He returned to the United States and was confined to Walter Reed Army Hospital for his injuries until April 1927. He was then assigned to McCook Field for experimental work, with additional duty as an instructor pilot to the 385th Bomb Squadron of

8455-406: Was minor, the raid showed the Japanese that their homeland was vulnerable to air attack, and forced them to withdraw several front-line fighter units from Pacific war zones for homeland defense. More significantly, Japanese commanders considered the raid deeply embarrassing, and their attempt to close the perceived gap in their Pacific defense perimeter led directly to the decisive American victory at

8550-421: Was nighttime, the weather was stormy, and Doolittle was unable to locate their landing field. Doolittle came down in a rice paddy (saving a previously injured ankle from breaking) near Quzhou . He and his crew linked up after the bailout and were helped through Japanese lines by Chinese guerrillas and American missionary John Birch . Other aircrews were not so fortunate, although most eventually reached safety with

8645-505: Was not expected to have a formal engineering background. He was simply to follow the instructions on the test card and fly the airplane appropriately. Setting the standard to overcome this condition were test pilots such as Jimmy Doolittle . While at McCook Field, Doolittle served as a test pilot , but was given leave to earn both Master of Science and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Today, most test pilots have advanced degrees in engineering. Inspired by

8740-593: Was renamed the Air Material Command Experimental Test Pilot School, and the soon-to-be Brigadier General Boyd assumed command of Muroc Air Force Base. Boyd chose Major John Amman, an instructor at the school, to go to Muroc AFB, and implement the details of the school's move westward. On 8 December 1949, Muroc AFB has renamed the Edwards Air Force Base in honor of Glen Edwards , TPS class 45, who

8835-679: Was selected to be a member of the Baker Board. Chaired by former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker , the board was convened during the Air Mail scandal to study Air Corps organization. In 1940, he became president of the Institute of Aeronautical Science. The development of 100-octane aviation gasoline on an economic scale was due in part to Doolittle, who had become aviation manager of Shell Oil Company. Around 1935 he convinced Shell to invest in refining capacity to produce 100-octane fuel on

8930-536: Was the first issued in the United States. He said that he considered his master's work more significant than his doctorate. Following graduation, Doolittle attended special training in high-speed seaplanes at Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D.C. He also served with the Naval Test Board at Mitchel Field , Long Island , New York , and was a familiar figure in air speed record attempts in

9025-465: Was the more likely cause. The investigation concluded, "insufficient supervisory oversight and a lack of discipline of the training process" in the maintenance unit existed in relation to the mishap aircraft. The commanding officer of the USAF test pilot school is better known by the title of the commandant. Although not an official prerequisite for the position, most commandants are themselves graduates of

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