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N0KFQ > TODAY 17.07.14 15:00l 47 Lines 2132 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 26441_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jul 17
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<DB0RES<DB0ANF<CX2SA<ZL2BAU<VK4TUB<F1OYP<PI8SNK<N0KFQ
Sent: 140717/1359Z 26441@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 17, 1938:
"Wrong Way" Corrigan crosses the Atlantic
Douglas Corrigan, the last of the early glory-seeking fliers,
takes off from Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn, New York, on a
flight that would finally win him a place in aviation history.
Eleven years earlier, American Charles A. Lindbergh had become an
international celebrity with his solo nonstop flight across the
Atlantic. Corrigan was among the mechanics who had worked on
Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis aircraft, but that mere footnote
in the history of flight was not enough for the Texas-born
aviator. In 1938, he bought a 1929 Curtiss Robin aircraft off a
trash heap, rebuilt it, and modified it for long-distance flight.
In July 1938, Corrigan piloted the single-engine plane nonstop
from California to New York. Although the transcontinental flight
was far from unprecedented, Corrigan received national attention
simply because the press was amazed that his rattletrap aircraft
had survived the journey.
Almost immediately after arriving in New York, he filed plans for
a transatlantic flight, but aviation authorities deemed it a
suicide flight, and he was promptly denied. Instead, they would
allow Corrigan to fly back to the West Coast, and on July 17 he
took off from Floyd Bennett field, ostentatiously pointed west.
However, a few minutes later, he made a 180-degree turn and
vanished into a cloudbank to the puzzlement of a few onlookers.
Twenty-eight hours later, Corrigan landed his plane in Dublin,
Ireland, stepped out of his plane, and exclaimed, "Just got in
from New York. Where am I?" He claimed that he lost his direction
in the clouds and that his compass had malfunctioned. The
authorities didn't buy the story and suspended his license, but
Corrigan stuck to it to the amusement of the public on both sides
of the Atlantic. By the time "Wrong Way" Corrigan and his crated
plane returned to New York by ship, his license suspension had
been lifted, he was a national celebrity, and a mob of autograph
seekers met him on the gangway.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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