I found this image on kinetic sculptor Chris Cole’s Facebook page, and was swept off my feet by its grainy sepia magic.
Then, sadly, I came crashing back to the ground. It looks like it could be the same bike that is featured in this Corbis stock photo I found.
Flying Rocket Bicycle
3/24/1932, Berlin, Germany-Max Wiedenhoft, well-known German airplane designer, poises on the roof of one of the Tempelhof Aerodrome buildings, about to start a test of his newly-designed rocket-bicycle. By pedalling the bike for his start, and by use of the rockets mounted on the rear wheel, Wiedenhoft’s Flying rocket-bicycle attained a momentum of 108 miles per hour. It is expected that the new machine may take the place of the small airplane.
And in fact it IS the same bike, and even the same image. My composite:
All of which has got me pondering cycle-powered flight, which is perhaps worthy of a fuller blog post when it’s not 85 degrees and sunny outside.
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lol. Awesome post man. Very crazy idea but very cool
As you suspect, it’s a hoax pic. It comes from the Dutch Nationaal Archief’s page on Flickr Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/3199096382/
with the caption
‘Vliegende fiets van Max Wiedenh in de lucht. 1 april-grap [uit de jaren 1920] van een Duitse krant’
or
‘Max Wiedenh’s flying bike airborne. April Fool’s joke (from 1920) in a German newspaper’
Great blog btw!
What happened to him? Anybody know? If he ever actually tried it, I would think it was the last thing he ever did!
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