In 1956, a World War II veteran-turned-airplane pilot named Thomas Fitzpatrick did what seems totally unthinkable: He flew a single-engine plane through the urban canyons of New York City and landed it perfectly on an uptown Manhattan street — all because of a drunken bet.
The New York Daily News Thomas Fitzpatrick made the front page of newspapers after he landed a plane in the middle of New York City.
Then, two years later, he did it again.
Thomas Fitzpatrick’s Early Life
Very little is known about Thomas Fitzpatrick, but from what is known it seems he lived a very colorful life even before landing airplanes on New York City streets.
Frank M. Ingalls/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images A view of Washington Heights, where Thomas Fitzpatrick grew up, in the early 1910s.
Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in New York City in 1930, likely in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater of World War II, though where exactly in the Pacific isn’t known…