WORLD-WIDE HOAX

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3479, 14 June 1934, Page 2

WORLD-WIDE HOAX

"MAN FLYING UNDER HIS OWN POWER." FAKED GERMAN PICTURE. Prominent United States newspapers were recently hoaxed by a faked photograph from Germany purporting to show a man flyrp'- for the first time in history, "under his own power." The far-reaching effects of the hoax are shown by the fact that the photograph was again reproduced in good faith in Friday's issue of an Auckland newspaper. The story of the hoax reached New Zealand by the last American mail. "The most amazing news picture of the decade appeared last week in the United States Press," states an exchange. "It was obtained in Germany by Hearst International News Photos, and showed what had never been seen before or even heard of: a man flying through the air by his own power. "Captions expjained the picture. The man was Pilot Erich Kocher, who flew by lung power, utilising the rotor principle. Strapped to his chest was an assembly of two horizontal rotors. He had skis on his feet for landing gear and a fin-like tail attached to his stern. "By blowing into a box on his chest Pilot Kocher made the rotors revolve. The turning rotors created a suction ahead into which Pilot Kocher and his apparatus sailed gaily while his excited friends trotted after him. The New York Times printed the picture under the caption 'A Man Flies on his Own Power for the First Time in History.' The New York Daily

News did likewise. "Surely this exploit was major news, yet not a word had appeared in the United States until the pictures arrived. There was good reason why. Pilot Kocher had flown only in the fertile imaginations of the editors of 'Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung,' who had cooked the picture for their magazine's annual April Fool edition. Hearst International News had been gloriously hoaxed, and the United States Press with it. "But in borrowing (the picture) the International News editor missed two ingenious points. First, the pilot did not simply blow the rotors round by sheer lung power. He breathed normally into the box in which a marvellous chemical contrivance converted the carbon di-oxide of his breath into fuel to run a small motor which moved the rotors. (As everyone should know carbon di-oxide is anything but combustible). Secondly, the pilot's name Koycher (not Kocher) was a freak spelling of Keucher, which means 'puffer' or 'hot-air merchant.' " The photograph, a reproduction 01 which appeared in Auckland last week is an ingenious fake It shows "Pilot Kocher" flying along several feet from the ground, while a group of men on foot are running behind him. The caption to the picture states: —"Driven by man-power— Erich Kocher, the German pilot. winging through space under his own power. He blows into a box-like arrangement, which causes two rotors to revolve. They also act as balancers. The ski is the 'landing gear,' while the pilot has a 'tail skid' at tached to his hips."