Today In History:  24 September  [1929]   --  Lt. James H. Doolittle makes the first blind, all-instrument flight.

Lt. James H. Doolittle makes the first blind, all-instrument flight in a Consolidated N-Y-2 Biplane over Mitchell Field in New York. Later he helped develop blind-flying equipment, and was 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 the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical.

PHOTO: A U.S. Navy Consolidated NY-2 (BuNo A7795) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Langley, Virginia (USA), on 5 May 1928: The Consolidated NY series were the first Consolidated aircraft purchased by the U.S. Navy.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia.