[BITList] April the First

[John Feltham]

Death in the Air

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Status: Staged with models
Date: Published in 1933; debunked in 1984.
Death in the Air: The War Diary and Photographs of a Flying Corps  
Pilot, published in 1933, purported to be the diary of an anonymous  
World War I RAF pilot killed in combat. The manuscript, which included  
numerous spectacular shots of aerial combat, was presented to the  
publisher by a Mrs. Gladys Cockburn-Lange, who claimed to be the widow  
of a British pilot.

The photos attracted enormous interest, since there were very few  
images of World War I aerial combat in existence. However, many people  
were skeptical. Why was the name of the pilot not revealed? How could  
the RAF have had no knowledge of these photos? And how could such  
clear shots have been taken with a camera mounted on an airplane  
(given the state of camera technology during WWI)?

The photos weren't definitively debunked until 1984 when archivists at  
the Smithsonian realized that "Mrs. Gladys Cockburn-Lange" was  
actually Betty Archer, the wife of Wesley David Archer, a model maker  
in the film industry. Archer had created models of all the aircraft,  
and then had superimposed images of the planes onto aerial backgrounds.

The three images shown here were captioned: "Just as he left the  
burning plane," "God, what a sight," and "....family group as 'twere."
References:
Brugioni, D. (1999). Photo Fakery. Brassey's: 100-102.
Park, E. (Jan 1985). "The Greatest Aerial Warfare Photos Go Down in  
Flames." Smithsonian: 103-113.
Technique: Staged Scene, Models and Cutouts. Time Period: 1920-1939.
Themes: Death, Military, War, Planes.
Permalink




Raised Runway
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Status: April Fool's Day joke

Date: Undated. Possibly from the 1920s.

A Berlin newspaper ran this image as an April Fool's Day joke,  
claiming it showed a runway constructed over a "large German city."  
The paper described how passengers were ferried up and down to the  
runway in an elevator.

References:
Illustration of Plane Flying Over City, Corbis.com.
Technique: Composite Images. Time Period: 1920-1939.
Themes: Humor, April Fool's Day, Planes.






ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.