Wrong-way Corrigan.....

‘Go West, Young Man …’

The ‘hero’ of this story is Douglas Corrigan, an American of Irish descent who ‘by mistake and incorrectly reading his compass’, flew from New York to Ireland instead of to California. Because of his ‘error’ he was nicknamed ‘Wrong Way Corrigan’ for the rest of his life. Bear in mind that this was back in the 1930’s and not in a Boeing 747 – just a simple Robin monoplane.

Corrigan was born in Galveston, Texas on 22 January 1907 and after his parents divorced, he settled with his mother in Los Angeles. When he was old enough, he began working in the construction industry. He had no interest in aviation whatsoever at this early stage of his life.

In October 1925, he came across a pilot at a local airfield who was taking paying customers for air rides in a biplane. He decided to return the following week and paid two dollars fifty cents for a flight.

Whilst flying over Los Angeles he became hooked on the idea of learning to fly. He soon began taking flying lessons and spent all his spare time learning all he could about flying and the mechanics of the aircraft from anyone who could help him.

He got to know some men who ran a very small aircraft building business and he convinced them to give him a job in their San Diego factory. Shortly after he joined them, an airman who wanted them to design and build a ‘special aircraft’ for a ‘special journey’ approached the company.

The plane they built was none other than The Spirit of St. Louis and the customer none other than Charles Lindbergh. Corrigan actually helped assemble the plane’s wings, its gas tanks and installed its instrument panel.

When Lindbergh’s flight was a success, Corrigan was thrilled to bits and there and then decided on his own transatlantic flight. Because of his Irish family roots, he chose Ireland as his destination.

In October 1929, Corrigan earned his transport pilot’s license and became a commercial pilot.

He would, with a friend, land his plane in small towns and sell rides to the locals. They made money but Corrigan gave it up and decided to return to the West Coast. In 1933, he bought a used monoplane to make the trip home to Texas. However, having later settled down in California, he began to work once again as an aircraft mechanic. He also began to modify his monoplane, a Robin, for a transatlantic flight.

In 1935, he considered it ready and applied for federal government permission to make a non-stop flight from New York to Ireland but his application was refused. The reason given was that they did not consider the Robin good enough for such a trip. They did, however, give permission for cross-country flights. Corrigan made further modifications to the plane but was again refused several times over the next two years.

Corrigan firmly believed in his aircraft’s capabilities and considered he was being balked by ‘red tape’ so he decided to complete the flight without permission. He planned to land in New York late at night after the airport officials had left, fill up with petrol and leave immediately for Ireland. However, due to mechanical problems on the way to New York, he was unable to continue. He put the flight back for another year and returned to California.

On 8 July 1938, he left California for New York with a registered flight plan showing that he intended to return to California. On 17 July, Corrigan took off from an airfield in Brooklyn New York in thick fog and headed east as directed by airport officials. The western flight path was not being used due to some building work at the end of the runway. Corrigan was therefore expected to turn west after completing his take-off. To the surprise of the airport officials he did not do so but continued to fly eastwards.

He later insisted that visibility was so poor due to the fog that he could only fly by using his compass and claimed that this indicated he was heading west.

About 26 hours into his flight, Corrigan also claimed that he dropped down out of the cloud cover and noticed that he was over water instead of land. He said that he again looked at his compass and discovered that he was in fact reading his direction by the wrong end of the magnetic needle.

Shortly afterwards, he was over Ireland and landed safely at Baldonnel Airport in Dublin. The flight had taken 28 hours and 13 minutes. He was questioned about his unauthorised flight but insisted on his story about the fog and the compass needle. When challenged strongly he insisted "That’s my story". He was‘punished’ by having his license revoked for about one month.

When he returned to the US in August, he was hailed as a hero. The New York Post had a banner headline saying, "Hail to Wrong Way Corrigan" and even had the print backwards. He received a ticker-tape parade down Broadway with more than a million people lining the street. This was a larger crowd than had turned out for Lindbergh after his similar flight.

He became a true ‘folk-hero’ and the humour of his ‘explanation’ brought some cheer to people during the Depression. Throughout his life he never admitted that the flight was fully intentional and not a mistake. He retired to grow oranges in Santa Ana, California and lived a quiet life until his death on 9 December 1995.

It is now acknowledged that Corrigan’s flight, during the very early years of transatlantic flight, was a daring achievement and that only the bravest and best aviators of the time would dare to have undertaken such a trip. There is no doubt whatsoever that he purposely flew across the Atlantic but I dearly wish that he had admitted that he did it intentionally and not that he had flown ‘the Wrong Way’.

Still, he remains one of my all-time heroes – way above Charles Lindbergh and every time I think about ‘Wrong Way’ I have to smile...........

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...................Mike..........................