‘Shell Oil developed JP-7 in 1955. Company vice president Jimmy Doolittle arranged for Shell to develop the fuel for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and United States Air Force’s (USAF) secret Lockheed U-2 spy plane, which needed a low-volatility fuel that would not evaporate at high altitude. Manufacturing several hundred thousand gallons of the new fuel required the petroleum byproducts Shell normally used to make its Flit insecticide, causing a nationwide shortage of that product!
I didn't know Doolittle was a VP at Shell after the military
Doolittle would resign his regular commission in 1930 and be commissioned as a Major in the Air Reserve Corps.
Starting his long career in the civilian aerospace industry, being named manager of the Aviation Department of Shell Oil Company, in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests, and lead the charge for Shell to produce the first production 100 octane aviation gasoline.
In 1931, he won the first Bendix Trophy race from Burbank, California, to Cleveland, in 1932, he set the world's high-speed record for land planes at 296 miles per hour in the Shell Speed Dash.
Later, he took the Thompson Trophy race in Cleveland in the notorious Gee Bee R-1 racer. Having won, the "big three" air racing trophies, the Schneider, Bendix, and Thompson, Doolittle retired from air racing.
He returned to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 1, 1940, with the rank of Major. His first task was to work with major automotive manufacturers to covert their factories from automobile to aircraft production to support the lend-lease policy before the US had officially entered into World War II.
The attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in Doolittle being promoted to lieutenant colonel, assigned to Army Air Forces Headquarters to plan the first retaliatory air raid on the Japanese homeland, which he volunteered to lead himself.
His largest command came in 1944 when he was promoted to lieutenant general and put in charge of the Eighth Air Force in England. This also made him the highest-ranking active reserve officer in modern times.
After WW2, President Harry S. Truman charged him with leading a presidential commission that created zoning requirements for airports zones and the development of large airports to improve transportation and military infrastructure
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