Douglas Corrigan was a Texas-born high school dropout who traded pouring concrete for the cockpit after a single biplane ride in 1925. Working as a mechanic at Ryan Aeronautical, he helped build Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis — assembling the wing, installing fuel tanks, and extending the wingspan by ten feet to achieve the lift-to-drag ratio needed for transatlantic flight. That hands-on experience didn't just inspire his own dream of flying to Ireland; it gave him the precise mechanical knowledge to attempt it. He bought a battered 1929 Curtiss Robin for $310, Frankensteined two salvaged radial engines together to nearly double its horsepower, and crammed every available inch with fuel tanks — only to have the Bureau of Air Commerce repeatedly reject his transatlantic application, declaring the aircraft a death trap.

Undeterred,  ...