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In 1933 the anonymous "Death in the Air: The War Diary and Photographs of a Flying Corps Pilot" purported to be the record of a Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilot during World War I, and included photos allegedly taken by the pilot during aerial combat. The photos were supposedly owned by a Mrs. Gladys Maud Cockburn-Lange, but had actually been faked by Wesley David Archer, an American pilot who had served in the RFC. The Cockburn-Lange hoax persisted until it was exposed by Peter M. Grosz, a German aviation author (Princeton, NJ), and Karl S. Schneide, from the Aeronautics Department of the National Air and Space Museum, in the early 1980s.
NASM.1986.0008
Archer, Wesley David
1916-1960
John W. Charlton, gift, 1985, 1986-0008, Unknown
5.2 Linear feet
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection documents the Cockburn-Lange hoax. The material includes the photos used in the book, as well as correspondence and journal articles detailing Grosz and Schneide's unraveling of the hoax. The collection also includes personal correspondence from Archer and various maps.
Arrangement: 1) Photographs published in DEATH IN THE AIR (1933), arranged by page number 2) unpublished photographs, unarranged 3) Peter M. Grosz & Karl S. Schneide journal articles and correspondence 4) Wesley David Archer correspondence arranged chronologically, 1915-1960 5) photographs of family, travel and friends 6) books 7) maps 8) artifacts 9) oversize photographs
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Cockburn-Lange Hoax
Aeronautics
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Maps
Audiotapes
Scrapbooks