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On September 30th, 1956, Thomas Fitzpatrick landed a stolen plane on St. Nicholas Avenue in northern Manhattan. The story goes, he had made a bet with someone in bar that he could fly an plane from New Jersey to New York in just 15 minutes. To prove himself, Fitzpatrick turned a bar room bet into a surprising airplane landing by stealing a plane from a New Jersey airport at 3 am, flew without lights or radio being completely intoxicated and landing it on St. Nicholas Avenue in Northern Manhattan, in front of the bar where he had been drinking. The New York Times called the first landing "a feat of aeronautics.". The owner of the plane was so impressed that he refused to press charges, and Fitzpatrick was given a $1000 fine for violating a city law which forbids landing on the NYC streets. Thomas Fitzpatrick was born on 24 April 1930 in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, New York City. He served in the US Marine Corps during the World War II for the Pacific theater. After the World War, he was honorably discharged and joined the US Army serving the Korean War where he received a Purple Heart for his service. At some point, Fitzpatrick developed an interest in flying and he enrolled in flying school at the Teterboro School Of Aeronautics, New Jersey. By the time he was 26, Fitzpatrick started working as an airplane mechanic. Two years later, Fitzpatrick got into another drunken argument in which another bar patron refused to believe his story, so he did it another time, this time a Red & Cream single engine Cessna 120 on Amsterdam Avenue near 187th street, Manhattan. Thomas Fitzpatrick died of cancer on September 14, 2009 at the age of 79. As of 2013, the Washington still had a drink named after Thomas Fitzpatrick " The Late Night Flight " .
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