A flat-Earther's plan to launch himself in a homemade rocket just hit a speed bump

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

A flat-Earther’s plan to launch himself in a homemade rocket just hit a speed bump

By Amy B Wang and Avi Selk November 24 at 2:28 PM

A California man who planned to launch himself 1,800 feet high Saturday in a homemade scrap-metal rocket — in an effort to prove that Earth is flat — said he is postponing the experiment after he couldn't get permission from a federal agency to conduct it on public land.

Instead, Mike Hughes said the launch will take place sometime next week on private property, albeit still in Amboy, Calif., an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert along historic Route 66.

“It's still happening. We're just moving it three miles down the road,” Hughes told The Washington Post on Friday. “This is what happens anytime you have to deal with any kind of government agency.”

Hughes claimed the Bureau of Land Management said he couldn't launch his rocket as planned Saturday in Amboy. He claimed the federal agency had given him verbal permission more than a year ago, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/11/24/a-flat-earthers-plan-to-launch-himself-in-a-homemade-rocket-just-hit-a-speed-bump/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. His family will have to wait a bit to accept his Darwin Award.

[GoneOffShore]

11. That's what I was thinking.

And 1800 feet - I'd read 18,000, but not that it matters. This loon and the other flat earthers are as clueless and paranoid as the chemtrailers.

[njhoneybadger]

2. It would a good time for him to get his will in order

[cwydro]

3. No words.

Lol.

[superpatriotman]

4. 1800 feet won't prove shit (except that he's an idiot)

Someone should tell him.

[Kleveland]

5. Heck, they can just put a headstone at the hole he is going to leave.

Probably a Trump voter anyway.

[padah513]

26. This

[ProudLib72]

29. I was thinking he should launch from (or near) a cemetery

Save everyone a lot of time and bother.

[L. Coyote]

6. This is what happens anytime you have to deal with any kind of government agency.

I guess he's had a little 'go-around' with the government.

[Denzil_DC]

8. My eye was drawn to that sentence too.

"This is what happens anytime you announce you're going to blast yourself spectacularly to oblivion in an unhinged pseudoscientific stunt that could get other less crazy people hurt or killed."

OTOH, what are the odds of the thing even leaving the ground?

[SeattleVet]

19. "OTOH, what are the odds of the thing even leaving the ground?"

Actually, pretty good.

He had a 'test flight' a few years ago.

It took him over a year to recover from the injuries he sustained on that little adventure.

I have serious doubts about his surviving this one. At least there will be a big greasy scar in the desert indicating where he finally intersected with the lithosphere.

[Denzil_DC]

20. Thanks, that's interesting to know.

I wouldn't want to be downrange. Or within quite a few hundred yards in any direction, including straight down.

[rpannier]

7. Your family ands friends have all bought their mourning clothes

The local minister and undertaker are waiting patiently

[CanonRay]

17. ...with a spoon to scrape him up.

[JDC]

9. 1800 feet? Why not find a mountain and climb up

Or get a helicopter ride for ~$500

Just a publicity hound stunt.

[BigmanPigman]

10. I never even heard of this shit until 10 days ago and met a stranger

at a park and he started telling me about this shit and he was serious. I came home and Googled it and everything he told me was on my computer....almost word for word. Last night at Thanksgiving Dinner I told everyone about this theory and only one other person heard of it and was able to verify this nonsense. When did the nuts start THIS? Alex Jones?

[L. Coyote]

13. This guy only heard about the flat earthers recently, when he was looking for funding.

Seems the flat earthers seemed like easy marks. I'm proposing we start a GoFundMe to photograph the edge of the world. Since no one has done this before, we don't know where it is, so we'll need enough money for a crew to travel around the world and hunt for it.
RU in?

[Mendocino]

23. There is a bunch of flat earther types

that claim the earth has no trees.

[lindysalsagal]

12. The funniest part is how wapo keeps covering this bs tongue-in-cheek.

[Takket]

14. damn gubmint won't let me splatter my guts over a quarter mile area!!!! What about muh FreeDUMB!!!!!

[malaise]

15. struggle4progress predicted this

See reply #9
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029871941#post9

Sorry Darwin - start singing We'll meet again

[sl8]

16. "Hughes only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, after struggling for months to raise funds ..."

From link in OP:

...

He built his first manned rocket in 2014, the Associated Press reported, and managed to fly a quarter-mile over Winkelman, Ariz.

As seen in a YouTube video, the flight ended with Hughes being dragged, moaning, from the remains of the rocket. The injuries he suffered put him in a walker for two weeks, he said.

The 2014 flight was only a quarter of the distance of Saturday’s mile-long attempt.

And it was based on round-Earth technology.

Hughes only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, after struggling for months to raise funds for his follow-up flight over the Mojave.

...

[Denzil_DC]

21. "and managed to fly a quarter-mile"

"and was hurled a quarter mile" more like, by the sound of it.

[dawg day]

25. You know, his achievement would have been impressive in 1902.

Darn those Wright Bros!

[Jim Lane]

37. The Wright Brothers don't enter into it

From what I've read, this doesn't sound like an air-supported craft, such as the one they built. The real comparison is with Robert Goddard, who built the first successful liquid-fueled rocket (1926).

[edbermac]

18. Well send flowers.

What an idiot.

[dalton99a]

22. "The U.S. government refuses to let me prove that the earth is flat. Therefore the earth is flat"

[Turbineguy]

24. What would the Great Leslie do?

[drray23]

27. hilarious. There are building taller than 1800ft.. He could just go there and take an elevator..

For example, One World Trade Center in NYC is 1776 ft. Close enough. If he is taller than 4ft he will make it to 1800ft..

[Thor_MN]

28. I doubt they would let him attempt to stand on the spire of One World Trade Center, but

you otherwise make a valid point. His stunt doesn't begin to approach altitudes high enough to prove his theory.

And there are many, much easier ways to get higher than what he wants to do.

[bellmartin]

33. Wait... wouldn't he have to be over TWENTY-four feet tall?

...but then, he could probably convince his crowd that he IS that tall...

[drray23]

34. yes you are right..

There are other buildings that are much taller however and only require taking the elevator. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is an astonishing 2717 ft!

list of tallest buildings

[Sneederbunk]

30. Memories of Super Dave Osborne.

[Docreed2003]

32. Lol!! Thats a blast from the past!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

31. Amboy is only an hour from my house

If he tells us specifically where he'll "launch" I'll get some pictures and post them.

[Thunderbeast]

38. You know.......

Amboy WASHINGTON is where D.B. Cooper jumped out of his hijacked 727.

This MUST be relevant to the story!

[krispos42]

35. The county coroner will be fighting with the coyotes for the remains.

And... I'm okay with that.

[Mr. Ected]

36. Yes, the Earth will flatten him upon impact

Someone needs to start a GoFundMe to buy a giant spatula to remove his flat-as-a-pancake remains from the surface of the planet. Unless the damned gubmint has a regulations against THAT too.

[sunonmars]

39. Do these guys not look in the sky with telescopes.......honestly, they are so culted up

[Le Gaucher]

40. This dude never been in a plane before? It cruises at high altitudes. Like 30000 ft.

Even at that height you cannot see the curvature or earth.. Because earth is so friggin massive.