The pea-soup fog of early morning had nearly dissipated, but the weather made little difference now to Lt. James H. Doolittle as he sat completely isolated beneath a specially constructed canvas canopy in the rear cockpit of his Consolidated Husky NY-2. The Army Air Corps’ crack pilot was descending to a pre-selected touchdown spot at Mitchel Field, Long Island.

With the aid of his bank-and-turn indicator, airspeed indicator, stopwatch, and the newly developed directional gyroscope and artificial horizon, Doolittle was engaged in an official demonstration of a practical, instrument-only blind flying method developed by the Full Flight Laboratory of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics.

Lt. Ben Kelsey occupied the open front cockpit of the NY-2 as a “safety” pilot. As the Husky suddenly veered off course, Kelsey resisted taking control of the aircraft. His decision proved justified as the intrepid Doolittle straightened out and made a safe landing. The September 24, 1929 flight had been short in terms of distance, but a giant step in the battle against the elements.

Doolittle’s flight marked the end of an era characterized by “instinct” flying and “seat-of-the-pants” approaches. While it did not represent a complete solution to the problem of flight in bad visibility, it did lay the essential groundwork for the sophisticated instrument techniques used today.