The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain (Air Corps) Carl J. Crane, U.S. Army Air Corps, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flights in originating and developing the airplane automatic landing system which made possible the first complete automatic airplane landing in history. The initiative displayed by Captain Crane in the difficult stages of the early development of the system overcame the discouragement caused by the necessity for re-planning and redesigning as original plans an designs proved impracticable. During the two years required for development of this system, Captain Crane, with utter disregard of his personal safety, acted as Pilot on innumerable test flights connected therewith, and when, finally on 23 August 1937, the first experimental automatic landing flights were made, he served as observer in the airplane used for this purpose. The engineering acumen, initiative, and resourcefulness displayed by Captain Crane, and his courage in performing many test flights with highly experimental equipment, were the principle factors which made the ultimate success of the automatic landing system possible.