Mr. Airplane Man

Editor's Note: I had some ethical qualms about the caption contest that I announced earlier for this photo, so that has been withdrawn and replaced with the original post. Sorry for the confusion.

Before you read any further into this post, stop for a moment and see if you can figure out what is going on in this picture.

My initial guess was that it was photoshopped, but unless Gibson Studio Photo Service in Grove, Oklahoma was way ahead of its time, that's not the case. Next I thought the man was waist-deep in a frozen lake, but the ice would hardly have supported the weight of the plane. And the guy would probably not have such a calm expression on his face if he were in water that cold.

The answer, which you may have guessed by this point, is that the man is an amputee. Bizarre, huh? My neighbor brought this picture over one night while we were all drinking beer on the porch, and after we'd stared at them a while, he gave us the back story.

Apparently his sister had purchased some land in Garnet, Kansas, but in order to claim it they had to dissemble an entire barn and move it off the property within 24 hours, a fine-print clause the seller had already used to scam a few other folks. My neighbor's family, however, succeeded, and in the process discovered a box of documents similar to this one.

Turns out the previous land owner had taught war veterans (either WW2 or Korea, I'm guessing) how to drive again, and in some cases, how to fly small aircraft. My neighbor says he has another picture of the same guy sitting in the cockpit with a dog sitting beside him, but he's not sure exactly where it is right now. I know it's a bit exploitative to display them here, but I couldn't help but share these. Thanks to my neighbor for letting me do so.