Douglas Corrigan

Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (January 22, 1907–December 9, 1995) was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. In 1938 after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, even though he was supposed to be returning to Long Beach. He claimed that this was due to a navigational error caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured any landmarks and low-light conditions that caused him to misread his compass. Corrigan, however, was a skilled aircraft mechanic (he was one of the builders of Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis) and he had made several modifications to his own plane rendering it suitable for transatlantic flight. Between 1935 and 1937 he applied several times for permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and it is likely that his "navigational error" was a protest against government "red tape"; however, he never publicly acknowledged having flown to Ireland intentionally.

References

This article is derived from the sources listed here. The essential sources are Corrigan (1938) and Fasolino (2001). Where the source may not be clear it has been included as a comment that is visible in Edit mode.

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• 'The Flying Irishman (1939)', Internet Movie Database (2004). Retrieved August 25 2005.
• Corrigan, Douglas. That's My Story (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1938)
• Fasolino, Chris. 'The Adventures of Wrong-Way Corrigan', The History Net (2001). Retrieved August 24 2005.
• Fraser, Chelsea Curtis. Famous American Flyers, (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941)
• Fyn, Chip. 'The Story of Wrong Way Corrigan', Fiddler's Green (April 2003). Retrieved August 24 2005.
• Marsh, Diann. 'Wrong Way Corrigan', Santa Ana History. Retrieved August 24 2005.
• Onkst, David H. 'Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan', US Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved August 24 2005.
• Sears, Stan. 'Corrigan?s Way: Right or Wrong, He Made His Mark on History', Airport Journals (March 2005). Retrieved August 24 2005.