This is the story of the historic 1938 flight of Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan who starred as himself in this film, which chronicled his infamous flight. On July 17, 1938, he loaded 320 gallons of gasoline (40 hours' worth) into the tiny, single engine plane. While expressing his intent to fly west to Long Beach, CA, he flew out of Floyd Bennett Field heading east over the Atlantic. Instrumentation in the plane included two compasses (both malfunctioned) and a turn-and-bank indicator. The cabin door was held shut with baling wire. Nearly 29 hours later, he landed in Baldonnel near Dublin. He forever claimed to be surprised at arriving in Ireland rather than California. He returned to the US as a hero, with a ticker tape parade in New York and received numerous medals and awards.