I was interested to read in The Irish Times the story of Brian Milton, who was obliged to abandon his attempt to be the first person to fly a microlight aircraft across the North Atlantic.
The Canadian aviation authorities apparently refused him a permit to make the necessary modifications to his aircraft, mainly involving the installation of a larger fuel tank. But according to the report, he made the changes secretly and had intended making the flight without permission. Unfortunately, his aircraft was damaged by crosswinds as he took off from Newfoundland for Shannon.
Milton had a predecessor who was more successful in outwitting the authorities. In 1938, Douglas Corrigan was a 31-year-old aircraft mechanic who, some years previously, had worked on the preparation of Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis. Corrigan made no secret of his wish to emulate Lindbergh's famous achievement. He seemed resigned, however, to the intransigence of the US authorities, who opposed non-stop solo flights across the ocean on the understandable grounds that the risks involved were unacceptable.
Then, 63 years ago today, on the morning of July 17th, 1938, Corrigan took off from Floyd Bennett Airfield in New York, having filed a flight-plan for a non-stop journey to Los Angeles.
According to himself, once in the air he misread his compass by observing the wrong end of the needle, and therefore headed east instead of west.
He blamed the weather for compounding his mistake; for almost half the journey thick cloud obscured the view, both above and below, and he had no way of taking bearings from landmarks or the sun. By the time he discovered the error of his ways, and realised that he was over the Atlantic, it was too late to turn.
His version is supported by the fact that he neither sought nor was given any weather information for the North Atlantic, but received a full briefing on the route to California. Moreover, the only map he carried related to the westward route, and he carried no passport or related documents of any kind. The aviation authorities, however, were convinced they were duped by Corrigan and that he really intended to fly the Atlantic all the time.
Whatever the truth, the maverick pilot spotted the Donegal coast 26 hours after take-off, and landed safely at Baldonnel some 60 minutes later.
Duly feted in Dublin, the now famous "Wrong-way" Corrigan sailed from Cobh a few weeks later and received the traditional ticker-tape welcome in New York.