kilometers), and landed, all without seeing anything outside of his cockpit
New technology was
appearing that would allow future expansion of commercial aviation. In
September 1929, a young U.S. Army lieutenant, James Doolittle, took off from
Mitchell Field in New York, flew an irregular course of 15 miles (24
kilometers), and landed, all without seeing anything outside of his cockpit
(the cockpit was shrouded.) He was using the first instrument navigation
package, including a very accurate barometer, a Sperry artificial horizon and gyroscope, and a radio
direction beacon for landing—all the result of research at the Full Flight
Laboratory set up by Harry Guggenheim.