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In 1938 American pilot Douglas Corrigan was refused permission to fly the Atlantic. He took off from New York saying he was going to California, and landed 28 hours later in Dublin, claiming he had misread his compass. Nobody believed him, and nobody minded.

Dublin, 18 July 1938

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The story behind the card

Corrigan had helped build Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis, assembling its wing and fitting its fuel tanks, and had spent years asking permission to fly the Atlantic himself. Inspectors kept ruling that his nine-year-old, much-modified Curtiss Robin was unfit for the crossing. So he filed a plan to fly home to California, took off from New York and turned east. His pilot's licence was suspended for just 14 days, which ran out the day his ship brought him and his plane back to New York. More people turned out for his ticker-tape parade on Broadway than had cheered Lindbergh, and Corrigan kept to the compass story for the rest of his life.

Türkçe oku
Amerikalı pilot Douglas Corrigan'ın 1938'de Atlantik'i uçakla geçmesine izin verilmedi. Corrigan, Kaliforniya'ya gideceğini söyleyerek New York'tan havalandı ve 28 saat sonra Dublin'e indi. Pusulasını yanlış okuduğunu söyledi. Kimse ona inanmadı, ama kimse de kızmadı.
Dublin, 18 Temmuz 1938

Corrigan, Charles Lindbergh'in ünlü uçağı Spirit of St. Louis'in yapımında çalışmış, kanadını birleştirip yakıt depolarını takmıştı. Yıllarca Atlantik'i kendisi de geçmek için izin istedi, ama denetçiler dokuz yıllık, üzerinde çok oynanmış Curtiss Robin uçağını her seferinde bu uçuşa uygun bulmadı. Bunun üzerine evine, Kaliforniya'ya döneceğini bildiren bir uçuş planı verdi, New York'tan havalandı ve doğuya yöneldi. Pilot lisansı yalnızca 14 gün askıya alındı; ceza, kendisi ve uçağı gemiyle New York'a döndüğü gün sona erdi. Broadway'de onun için düzenlenen konfetili geçit törenine, Lindbergh'i karşılayan kalabalıktan daha çok insan katıldı. Corrigan da pusula hikâyesinden ömrünün sonuna kadar vazgeçmedi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Douglas Corrigan
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