AP‘Mad Mike Hughes’ is a self-taught scientist and firm believer that the Earth is flat, however Mike Hughes went one step beyond.
Now I’m not a flat-Earther but I have to tip my hat to Mike Hughes. Fair play. This guy is such an adamant believer that he actually built his own rocket and flew above the Earth in order to prove that the Earth is ‘shaped like a frisbee’.
‘Mad Mike’, built the ‘steam-powered’ rocket using scrap metal and ended up spending around $20,000 (£15,000) on the beast, reports The Independent.
Truly living up to his name, ‘Mad Mike’ went for it, as an online video proves, however it’s only true to say that his flight into orbit was pretty damn short – lasting around 4 seconds in total before he landed hard in the Mojave Desert.
Personally I think he could’ve just hopped on a plane and reached similar heights where he could take an extended look at the shape of the Earth but I’m not ‘Mad Mike’.
Speaking after paramedics checked him over, Mike said:
I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket. I’m tired of that stuff; I manned up and did it.
After his hard landing, 61-year-old Hughes, who works as a limousine driver, claimed he only had a bad back.
Upon impact, the nose of the homemade rocket, which Hughes had been creating from hand over the past few months, shattered as intended – although Hughes admitted the landing was a close call.
He said:
This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways. Am I glad I did it? Yeah, I guess. I’ll feel it in the morning. I won’t be able to get out of bed.
At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight.
Mike rejects the general belief the Earth is spherical and his flight was sponsored largely by a group called, ‘Research Flat Earth’.
He spent months building his rocket and created a launch pad from a converted mobile home.
It is estimated that Mike reached a speed of 350mph and a height of 1,875 feet before parachutes, reportedly supplied by Nasa, were deployed allowing the rocket to land, relatively safely.
Speaking to Associated Press last year, Mike said:
I don’t believe in science.
I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust, but that’s not science, that’s just a formula.
There’s no difference between science and science fiction.
Before the flight, Mike claimed his aim was to fly high enough to gather evidence which disproves the accepted fact, the Earth is round.
In an interview with the Daily Plane, a website for ‘flat Earthers’, Mike said he only started believing the theory fairly recently.
He said:
It will shut the door on this ball Earth.
This is the king of the deceptions. This is it. And once this domino falls and more people come to this side, then everything else — the dominos structure falls.
So did Mike prove that the Earth is flat? No. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. What a guy! A true eccentric.
You can watch the full launch here on NoizeTv. Their commentary is something else.
