In 1929 at the site of the Aircraft Radio Corporation Airdrome in Boonton Township, Lieutenant James H. Doolittle of the Army Air Corps conducted extensive acceptance tests of the Aircraft Radio Corporation Type B Beacon Receiver and the Type C Code Transmitter. With the aid of these radios, he was able to take off, fly, and land his airplane for the first time in aviation history by reference to instruments alone without looking out of the cockpit. This flight revolutionized aviation, which had been greatly limited in usefulness because flights in darkness, clouds, and fog that obscured the pilot’s vision had been impossible. By demonstrating instrument flight, James H. Doolittle assembled a large section of the solid foundation on which the United States aerospace industry stands supreme in the world.
