Striking a strong blow on behalf of the peaceful, productive whacko community, Mike Hughes belatedly launches himself above the desert in a steam-powered rocket … as the start of his bid to prove the earth is flat.
Survived the endeavor, too, which many believed unlikely.
I had read that. I wonder if he ever imagined himself coming down outside of the edge of the world – and where he would end up?
Also wonder if he saw the curve of the earth while he was up there, and if he will admit it.
Paging Charles Darwin, Paging Charles Darwin……
1800 feet up…..might not have even seen the horizon…..
The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.
How charmingly amusing! I believe the British call fellows like this ‘eccentrics’, and cherish them highly. I can see why – he alone could make for some interesting dinner conversation with nobody having to be rude to or about him.
Honestly though, he’s lucky to have not collided with a flying pushme-pullyou up there. There are quite a lot of them in that part of the country.
The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.
And for one brief, shining moment they had one above the globe, too.
“1800 feet up…..might not have even seen the horizon…..”
Over flat land (in the center of the country) I’ve seen the curve starting to show from a commercial prop plane. Don’t remember how high up we were at the time.
My recollection of being in small private planes is that at 1800 feet or so you feel as if you could almost reach out and touch buildings and the ground. You wouldn’t see the curve of the horizon. That comes in at much higher altitude.
That’s the thing I don’t get. He’s clearly smart enough to know that. He had enough technical mojo to make the silly-ass thing work. How could he be so ignorant as to have convinced himself that it would demonstrate anything about the shape of the earth?
It’s not clear to me, but I believe this flight was intended only as proof of concept re the rocket. I think he intends to go higher to see “frisbee earth.”
Why he doesn’t just buy an airline ticket, I have no idea. But as david said, charming, inventive eccentrics are to be cherished. They may go splat, but they tend not to take too many others along with them.
His plan is to eventually fly a rocket to the Karman line
His plan is to eventually fly a rocket to the Karman line
That CAN’T be his actual plan. Aside from the flat earth thing, that’s my point. If he’s smart enough to build a steam rocket – which he has demonstrated himself to be – he’s smart enough to know he can’t build a steam rocket capable of doing that. Not without a major ground-based laser powered by a nuclear power plant or something else equally science fiction-derived.
All that to one side, I completely agree that peacefully inventive eccentrics are much more fun than the ban-crazed political kind. There’s just a dissonance with this guy with the precise frequency to make my head ache.
That CAN’T be his actual plan.
Well it is his stated plan, that doesn’t mean he will achieve it
OK. So know not squat of this fellow. But might “flat earth” be just a marketing ploy?
🙂
I was thinking something like that, too. He just has to know it isn’t. I would have to think it’s the same for most of the other members of that society.
Under “Flat Earth WIKI,” the society notes that “The specific beliefs of our members are widely varied, as should be expected from such a group of free-thinkers!” https://theflatearthsociety.org/home/
The Widipedia take: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies
I heard he became a flat earther to get donations from them.
It has simply AMAZED me to see how many presumably intelligent people are actually buying back into the ‘flat earth’ stuff.
I have concluded that it’s because they’re so sick and tired of being lied to about EVERYTHING that they’re willing to just chuck it all out. I understand THAT sentiment, at least.
PS> My Skylane has a service ceiling of about 20,000′. (FL 200, give or take). From there, you can’t see the curve, but you do get a sense of it, especially on a long cross country flight. However, flying a “great circle route,” and seeing how much time and fuel you save, is pretty persuasive (not to mention GPS satellites…)
At 1800 feet you are still lower than me here in Casper, WY.
What am I overlooking? If the Earth is flat, why couldn’t you just drive up to the edge and look over?
Because there’s an ocean there. You might fall over the edge in a roaring waterfall if the Circumfence didn’t catch you.
https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Circumfence
One may not be able to determine the earth is spherical from one’s front porch, but one can determine it’s not flat: Sunrise occurs sequentially (and gradually) across the U.S. in approximately 1-hour increments per region. Were the earth flat, New York and Seattle would have near-simultaneous sunrises, and the North star would be visible from south of the equator.
But if one has one’s own money to do it with, and the ambition, I have no problem with trying to prove the earth is the same shape as a 1963 Buick.
Norman, you are wreaking it with the time zone and north star stuff. And I think we can muster enough evidence to be 99.999% sure the earth isn’t the shape of a 1963 Buick. Maybe a 1964 Ford Mustang, but the Buick, noway!