In July 1938, after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, Texas aviator Douglas Corrigan (1907–95) flew to Ireland -- even though he was supposed to be returning to Long Beach. The delighted press dubbed him “Wrong-way Corrigan.”
Corrigan claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error caused by heavy cloud cover. However, he was a skilled pilot and aircraft mechanic (and one of the builders of the plane that Charles Lindbergh used in the first transcontinental flight) and a notorious, risk-taking maverick.

From 1935-37, Corrigan applied several times unsuccessfully for permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland. It is likely that his "navigational error" was a protest against government red tape.

On July 9, 1938, Corrigan left California for New York, with permission for a transcontinental flight with conditional consent for a return trip. He soon developed a gas leak. Upon arriving in New York, Corrigan decided that repairing the leak would take too long, so headed east -- and kept going. He claimed not to have noticed his flying "error" until after about 26 hours. He landed in Dublin, on July 18 after a 28-hour, 13-minute flight.

Despite breaking the law, Corrigan’s pilot's certificate was suspended for just two weeks.
He and his plane returned to New York on the steamship, and he was greeted with a great celebration and his new nickname.