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Auguste Fanyer: a man who never was

Perhaps everyone knows the playful phrase "flying like plywood over Paris", but only a few know that it is not so joking and connected with a specific historical event. In the center of it was some Auguste Fagnier - a man who in fact never existed, a fictional character, if I may say so.

But the prototype of it was a very real character, and none other than French President Arman Fallier, who paid much attention only to the emerging aviation industry and aeronautics in general.

The birth of the myth of the French aviator-loser

The whole story is very confusing and full of contradictions from beginning to end. But its essence boils down to the fact that Auguste Fanier, allegedly a well-known French aeronaut, during the test flight on the aircraft he designed, had an accident and died at the same time.

Event this is attributed to 1908, and as if the aviator-loser, making his fatal flight, crashed into the Eiffel Tower, and this happened in front of thousands of amazed residents of the French capital. But all this is a fiction, there was no plane crash in Paris in 1908, and Auguste Fagnier-aviator himself never simply existed.

When and by whom was the first phrase spoken

Another story related to this myth, refers to the same time, that is, to the beginning of the XX century, but it was no longer in Paris, but in Moscow. The phrase that was winged, both literally and figuratively, is attributed to the very real, unlike Fanier, the fierce fighter with tsarism, Martov, who was in the party cell of the Mensheviks and who was engaged in journalism.

In about 1911, in the Iskra newspaper, Martov published a note with an ardent criticism of the regime that existed: "... the power of Tsar Nicholas flies just as confidently to collapse and destruction as Mr. Pannier's plywood airplane!" Discrepancy. Of course, Martov could come up with the name Auguste Fagnier, but he could not write about it - "Iskra" was closed after the revolutionary events of 1905!

The real roots of the birth of a myth

In 1909, many French newspapers printed a caricature depicting the then President of the Republic, Arman Fallier, who was seated on an airplane diving down. This was due to Faller's enthusiasm for just emerging aviation and its constant attempts to introduce and develop it in France. For this the president was constantly peppered with caustic criticism, and he was considered a madman himself.

The fact is that it's been 7 years since the Wright brothers first took to the air on their glider, and at that time few people believed in airplanes, the future was seen behind the airships. And Auguste Fanier, the French aviator (fictitious), became the prototype of Arman Fallier, the president.

So where did the "plywood" that flew over Paris come from?

Proceeding from the foregoing, it becomes clear who is in fact this mythical Auguste Fanyer, but this does not explain anything about plywood, although many consider it a play on words: Fannier is plywood. But in reality everything is much simpler: this expression was taken from French newspapers of the early XX century, long and meticulously told about the flight over Paris of a luxurious airship-handsome man named Fallier ("Flaner").

From French newspapers these articles were translated into Russian, before the 1917 revolution in Russia they were keenly interested in everything that was happening in France, in particular, in its capital. And the Russians are known for their tendency to distort words taken from other languages, so "Flaner", flying over Paris, has turned into a plywood more familiar for our language.

That's how at first glance, a simple winged expression has a whole story that was born a long time ago. This once again proves that a man by nature likes to change everything to look more beautiful. But as a result, in our dialect there is a well-known expression "flew past plywood over Paris".

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