The
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung ran this photo in its April Fool's Day edition to illustrate a (joke) story about a flying machine powered by the breath from a man's lungs. The man demonstrating the machine was identified as Erich Koycher. International News Photo, believing the story to be true, distributed the photo to its American subscribers. As a consequence, it subsequently appeared as factual news in many American papers, including in the
New York Times. "Koycher" was a pun on the German word "keuchen," meaning to wheeze or gasp for breath.
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