涨知识：13个让你看不懂的英文习语的起源

To "fly by the seats of your pants," or improvise without a clear plan, was popularized after Douglas Corrigan's 29-hour flight from Brooklyn to Dublin in 1938.
“让屁股蛋来引领飞行方向”（fly by the seats of your pants），即没有清晰计划只凭感觉做事。1938年道格拉斯•科里根从布鲁克林飞行了29个小时到都柏林，随后这一短语便流行起来。

The phrase was used in a 1938 headline in The Edwardsville Intelligencer to describe Corrigan’s off-book flight. He was meant to fly to California, but diverted his plane to Dublin instead.
1938年，《爱德华兹维尔讯报》的头条标题使用的就是这个短语，来形容科里根这次计划外的飞行。他本来要飞到加利福尼亚，可却掉头去了都柏林。

"Corrigan had filed for a transatlantic flight two days earlier but it was rejected because his plane was not considered fit for the job," the researchers wrote. "Upon landing in Dublin he claimed his compass had packed up."
“两天前科里根提交了飞越大西洋的申请，但是被拒绝了，因为他的飞机被认为不适宜进行这样的任务，”研究员写道，“到了都柏林一着陆，他就说他的指南针坏了”。

One mechanic said Corrigan "flies by the seat of his pants," which was said to be an old flying expression for going aloft without instruments or radio.
一位机械师说科里根“让屁股蛋来引领飞行方向”，这是一个古老的飞行用语，用来指代不凭借任何仪器或无线电的飞行。