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Original records of NX9243 from the Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce, are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.Ĭlyde Groce Corrigan¹ was born 22 January 1907 at Galveston, Texas. The Robin is currently in the collection of the Planes of Fame ir Museum, Chino, California. In 1988, the airframe and components were transported to Hawthorne Airport (HHR), at Hawthorne, California, where the airplane was reassembled and placed on display. The airplane as placed in storage at his home in southern California. (Independent Newspapers/National Library of Ireland, call number IND H 3242)Ĭorrigan’s Curtiss Robin was disassembled and returned to the United States aboard ship. Douglas Corrigan’s modified Curtiss Robin at Baldonnell, Ireland, 18 July 1938. He was forever after known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan. He said that he had become disoriented in the clouds, misread his compass and flew East rather than West. 28 hours, 13 minutes later, he landed at Baldonnell Aerodrome (now known as Casement Aerodrome), County Dublin, Ireland. He announced that he would make the return flight and had his Robin fueled with a total of 320 gallons (1,211.3 liters) of gasoline.Īt 5:15 a.m., 17 July 1938, Corrigan and his Robin took off from Floyd Bennett Field and disappeared into a cloudy sky.
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In early July 1938, Douglas Corrigan made a non-stop flight from Long Beach, California to Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York. Clyde Groce (“Douglas”) Corrigan with a Stinson Junior SM-2AA, NC8431. The Bureau of Commerce had repeatedly refused to authorize Corrigan’s requests to make a trans-Atlantic flight as his airplane was considered unsuitable for such a flight. The Whirlwind 150 was 3 feet, 51.1 inches (1.044 meters) long, 3 feet, 9.0 inches (1.143 meters) in diameter, and weighed 370 pounds (168 kilograms). In this configuration, the airplane was a Robin J-1 (Curtiss Model 50H)He also installed extra fuel tanks. The direct-drive engine turned a two-bladed propeller. He replaced the Robin’s original water-cooled 502.65-cubic-inch-displacement (8.237 liter) Curtiss OX-5 V-8 engine (rated at 90 horsepower at 1,400 r.p.m.) with a more modern, more powerful, Wright “J-6-5.” This engine was an air-cooled, supercharged, 539.96-cubic-inch-displacement (8.848 liter) Wright R-540 Whirlwind 150 single-row 5-cylinder radial which produced 150 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m. The range was 480 miles (773 kilometers).Ĭorrigan continuously worked on the airplane, repairing, overhauling, re-skinning, modifying. Its cruise speed was 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour) and the maximum speed was 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour). In standard configuration, the Robin weighed 1,472 pounds (667.7 kilograms) empty, and 2,440 pounds (1,106.8 kilograms) loaded. The Robin was 25 feet, 8½ inches (7.836 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and height of 7 feet, 9½ inches (2.375 meters). In 1933, Corrigan and his younger brother Harry Groce Corrigan, an aeronautical engineer, bought a 1929 Curtiss Model 50 Robin B, a single-engine, high-wing monoplane. in San Diego, California.Ĭorrigan had assumed the first name “Douglas,” possibly out of admiration for “The King of Hollywood,” actor Douglas Fairbanks. Louis as an employee of Ryan Aircraft Co. An aircraft mechanic, he had worked on the construction of the Spirit of St.
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Lindbergh, and to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Douglas Corrigan with his modified Curtiss Model 50 Robin B, NX9243, at Floyd Bennett Field, July 1938.ġ7 July 1938: For more than ten years it had been Clyde Groce Corrigan’s ambition to emulate his hero, Charles A.