Transport Flyer Tramp Of Skies; Hop To Ireland

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1938, Page 7

Transport Flyer Tramp Of Skies; Hop To Ireland

(.Received 8.30 a.m.)

NEW YORK, July 18. jpESIDENTS CF NEW YORK HAD AN AVIATION MYSTERY ABOUT WHICH TO SPECULATE AS DO UGLAS CORRIGAN, AGED 31, A TRANSPORT PILOT, FLYING A NINE- YEAR-OLD SINGLE-MOTORED CURTISS ROBAN AEROPLANE, NO I EQUIPPED EITHER WITH RADIO OR SAFETY DEVICES, SET OFF ALONE YESTERDAY EITHER NONSTOP TO LOS ANGELES CR EQUALLY NON-STOP, OF NECESSITY, TO ENGLAND.

It was an unlicensed attempt to emulate Colonel Charles Lindbergh, whose aeroplane. Spirit of St. Louis, Corrigan helped to assemble for the historic flight of 1927. Corrigan arrived in New York on July 10 unheralded.

The mystery was solved, when a message from London reported that the airman had ax’rived at Baldonnel Aerodrome. Ireland, after a flight across the Atlantic in his old machine, taking 23] hours on the hop.

Non-Stop Across Continent. Owing to the excitement attending the hopping oil’ of Mr Howard Hughes on his world flight, it was not until next day that Corrigan calmly announced that he had flown non-stop from Los Angeles in 27 hours 50 minutes on a holiday jaunt. This caused aviators to gasp, since such a flight is x-egarded as an achievement in a modern aeroplane but little short of a miracle in that of Corrigan’s, which, is so overladen with petrol tanks that he cannot see out of the cockpit towards the front and must flip the aeroplane sideways in order to make observations from the cabin windows. Vanished Due East. A greater gasp went up at 5.17 a.m. yesterday, when Corrigan loaded 320 gallons of petrol into the tanks, estimated to be a 40 hours’ supply, took off and vanished. due east instead of west. It was then learned that Corrigan had unsuccessfully applied for a permit to fly to Ireland last year and had long cherished the ambition to fly across the Atlantic. His friends insisted that he had no such intention when he took off yesterday, and contended that he was merely going back to Los Angeles. They pointed out that it is not uncommon for westward fliers to take off eastward from New York and to circle afterwards. When yesterday passed wdthout a further report as to the whereabouts of Corrigan, however, the trans-Atlan-tic theory gained many converts and the mystery became a minor newspaper sensation. Fuel Almost Exhausted. Douglas Corrigan had only 40 gallons of petrol left out of the 320 with which he started. His plane cruises at only from 80 to 90 miles an hour. The only provisions he had were half a gallon of water, some chocolate and biscuits. The airman is remaining in Dublin for a few days. He is the guest of the United States legation. Officials of the Air Commerce Bureau, says a Washington message, said that Corrigan may be put under “gentle discipline” when he returns. The United States director denied that he said the Bureau would make every endeavour to keep Corrigan from flying back.