40 Facts About Douglas Corrigan

Douglas Corrigan had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his "navigational error" was seen as deliberate.

Clyde Groce Douglas Corrigan was named for his father, a construction engineer; his mother was a teacher.

Douglas Corrigan eventually settled with his mother, brother Harry, and sister Evelyn in Los Angeles.

In October 1925, eighteen-year-old Douglas Corrigan saw people paying to be taken for short rides in a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane near his home.

Ryan Aeronautical Company operated from the airfield where Douglas Corrigan learned to fly, and hired him for their San Diego factory in 1926.

Douglas Corrigan was responsible for assembling the wing and installing the fuel tanks and instrument panel of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis.

Douglas Corrigan pulled the chocks from the Spirit of St Louis when Lindbergh took off from San Diego to New York to prepare for his historic flight.

Douglas Corrigan discussed the idea with friends and mentioned flying without permission.

When Ryan Aeronautical moved to St Louis in October 1928, Douglas Corrigan stayed in San Diego as a mechanic for the newly formed Airtech School.

Douglas Corrigan disapproved and prohibited him from performing stunts in the company aircraft.

Douglas Corrigan simply flew to a field farther south where his stunts could not be seen by his employers.

Douglas Corrigan moved from job to job as an aircraft mechanic, using his employers' planes to develop his flying skills.

Douglas Corrigan gained his transport pilot certificate in October 1929, and started a passenger service in 1930 with his friend Steve Reich, flying between small East Coast towns.

Douglas Corrigan's autobiography expresses his exasperation with official resistance and he is widely thought to have responded by deciding that year to make an unofficial crossing.

On July 9,1938, Douglas Corrigan again left California for Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York.

Douglas Corrigan had repaired the engine, taking his total spent on the aircraft to about $900, gained an experimental license, and obtained permission for a transcontinental flight with conditional consent for a return trip.

Douglas Corrigan claimed to have noticed his "error" after flying for about 26 hours.

Douglas Corrigan used a screwdriver to punch a hole through the cockpit floor so that the fuel would drain away on the side opposite the hot exhaust pipe, reducing the risk of a midair explosion.

Douglas Corrigan's provisions had been two chocolate bars, two boxes of fig bars, and a quart of water.

Douglas Corrigan's plane had fuel tanks mounted ahead of his position, allowing him to see only out of the sides.

Douglas Corrigan had no radio and his compass was 20 years old.

Douglas Corrigan had lavish financial backing, friends to help him at every turn.

Douglas Corrigan had nothing but his own ambition, courage, and ability.

Douglas Corrigan built it, or rebuilt it, practically as a boy would build a scooter out of a soapbox and a pair of old roller skates.

The door behind which Douglas Corrigan crouched for twenty-eight hours was fastened together with a piece of baling wire.

The reserve gasoline tanks put together by Douglas Corrigan, left him so little room that he had to sit hunched forward with his knees cramped, and not enough window space to see the ground when landing.

Douglas Corrigan was given a ticker tape parade in Chicago.

Douglas Corrigan appeared as a contestant on the July 16,1957 episode of the United States television panel show To Tell the Truth.

Douglas Corrigan wrote his autobiography, That's My Story, within months of the flight; it was published for the Christmas market on 15 December 1938.

Douglas Corrigan then worked as a commercial pilot for a small California airline.

Douglas Corrigan retired from aviation in 1950 and bought an 18-acre orange grove in Santa Ana, California.

Douglas Corrigan lived there with his wife and three sons for the remainder of his life.

Douglas Corrigan knew nothing about raising oranges, and said he learned by copying his neighbors.

Douglas Corrigan's wife died in 1966, and Corrigan sold most of his grove for development, keeping only the ranch-style house.

Douglas Corrigan became reclusive after one of his sons died in a private plane crash on Santa Catalina Island in 1972.

Douglas Corrigan was so excited that the organizers placed guards at the plane's wings while he was at the show and considered tethering the tail to a police car to prevent him from taking off in it.

An anthology of aircraft-related mysteries published in 1995 claimed that Douglas Corrigan was elected an Honorary Member of the 'Liars Club of America' at the age of 84, and that the 'honor' had been politely but firmly refused.

Up to his death on December 9,1995, Douglas Corrigan still maintained that he had made his transatlantic flight by accident.

Douglas Corrigan's "error" caught the imagination of the depressed American public and inspired many jokes.

The nickname "'Wrong Way' Douglas Corrigan" passed into common use and was mentioned when someone had the reputation for taking the wrong direction.