A Darwin award goes to "Mad" Mike Hughes | FerrariChat

A Darwin award goes to "Mad" Mike Hughes

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by ChipG, Feb 22, 2020.

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  1. NaO

    NaO Karting

    Apr 23, 2017
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  2. ylshih

    ylshih Shogun Assassin
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    Mar 21, 2004
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    Yin
    What was the chute that deployed near the beginning of launch?
     
  3. spicedriver

    spicedriver F1 Rookie

    Feb 1, 2011
    3,859
    Looked similar to the Evil Knievel Snake River Canyon rocket launch:

     
  4. BMW.SauberF1Team

    BMW.SauberF1Team F1 World Champ

    Dec 4, 2004
    14,244
    Appears to have been the parachute he was going to use to land safely with and should have deployed after he got maximum height. It was over the second it got off the ground. Sad video.
     
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  5. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    Nurburgringer likes this.
  6. kylec

    kylec F1 Rookie
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    Jun 9, 2005
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    You knew Icarus?
     
  7. ChipG

    ChipG Formula 3

    May 26, 2011
    1,722
    Santa Monica, CA
    yea, it had one, it spent all 99 lives about 30 feet up
     
  8. ChipG

    ChipG Formula 3

    May 26, 2011
    1,722
    Santa Monica, CA
    I'm not 100% sure but I think it was a hefty trash bag(s)
     
  9. andy308

    andy308 Formula 3

    Jan 16, 2005
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    Now I guess we will never know if the earth is truly flat! What an idiot.
     
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  10. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Jul 19, 2008
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    He did not really think it was flat, more shaped like a frisbee or discus. Would hate to do the orbital mechanics for satellites on something like that. Earth's oblateness makes it hard enough on a sphere.
     
  11. Nurburgringer

    Nurburgringer F1 World Champ

    Jan 3, 2009
    11,031
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    As outlandish as "flat earthers" are (and really, how much more outlandish are they than anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, chemtrail truthers, 9/11-was-an-inside-jobbers, etc?) this guy build a ****ing rocket in his shed, climbed in and blasted off. Twice!
    I'll raise my glass to that. Sad he didn't get high enough and land safely to tell FEers of our "ball shaped" planet. Although like others that feed off of conspiracy theories and willfully ignore overwhelming scientific evidence they probably wouldn't have believed him.

     
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  12. spicedriver

    spicedriver F1 Rookie

    Feb 1, 2011
    3,859
    It would have been a whole lot safer for him to buy a ride on a Mig-29. @70,000' the curvature of the Earth is obvious.

    What no one can "deny", is that climate science has been politicized.
     
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  13. Nurburgringer

    Nurburgringer F1 World Champ

    Jan 3, 2009
    11,031
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    There are numerous more sensible ways to "prove" the earth is indeed a ball, most of which don't involve leaving it.
    Seems like the act of launching himself skyward in a contraption of his own design and construction was at least as important to him as proving or disproving anything other than he wanted to do it.

    I'm just surprised he didn't try to design his rocket to look more like a space limo ;)

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939nnz/mad-mike-hughes-was-a-daredevil-first-flat-earther-second?utm_source=digg

    meh, just about anything that involves tons of money is bound to be politicized. Follow the money.
     
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  14. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    Well, you can talk and talk to some people but they don't listen to you when they are that type. Everybody knows that wax melts in the hot sun but like I said, he
     
  15. spicedriver

    spicedriver F1 Rookie

    Feb 1, 2011
    3,859
    Nothing wrong with building rockets. Just put a camera on it:

     
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  16. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    May 27, 2004
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    There were apparently reserve chutes which he failed to deploy, probably because he passed out.

    He may not have discoverd the earth is flat. He did demonstrate gravity exists and that the earth is hard.

    I’ll give him Credit for perseverance and he did build a rocket.
     
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  17. Nurburgringer

    Nurburgringer F1 World Champ

    Jan 3, 2009
    11,031
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    I got sucked down the youtube rabbit hole a few nights ago watching LDRS videos. Very cool stuff.
     
  18. RWP137

    RWP137 Formula 3

    Apr 29, 2013
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    There was only one way this was going to end.
     
  19. red27

    red27 Formula Junior

    Sep 7, 2010
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    London UK
    Full Name:
    Mark Oliver
    Given that buying a commercial airline ticket to 40000’ or launching a camera equipped rocket to 200k+’ would achieve a higher altitude for less cost and effort than the late Mr. Hughes ever expended on his contraption, one would have to assume that attracting media attention was Indeed of more importance to him than purported scientific discovery, or indeed his personal safety.

    In the end quite as sad and futile as falling off a cliff whilst striving for the ultimate Instagram shot.

    Darwin par excellence.
     

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