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Let us not forget, there are still peaceful, productive whackos (as opposed to the other kind of whackos who daily plague our newsfeeds and threaten our liberties)

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.

21 Comments

  1. Pat
    Pat March 26, 2018 8:15 am

    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.

  2. UnReconstructed
    UnReconstructed March 26, 2018 9:44 am

    Paging Charles Darwin, Paging Charles Darwin……

    1800 feet up…..might not have even seen the horizon…..

  3. Desertrat 1
    Desertrat 1 March 26, 2018 10:54 am

    The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.

  4. david
    david March 26, 2018 11:06 am

    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.

  5. Claire
    Claire March 26, 2018 12:19 pm

    The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.

    And for one brief, shining moment they had one above the globe, too.

  6. Pat
    Pat March 26, 2018 12:42 pm

    “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.

  7. Claire
    Claire March 26, 2018 1:47 pm

    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.

  8. Joel
    Joel March 26, 2018 2:50 pm

    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?

  9. Claire
    Claire March 26, 2018 4:40 pm

    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.

  10. Myself
    Myself March 26, 2018 5:03 pm

    His plan is to eventually fly a rocket to the Karman line

  11. Joel
    Joel March 26, 2018 5:11 pm

    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.

  12. Myself
    Myself March 26, 2018 5:25 pm

    That CAN’T be his actual plan.
    Well it is his stated plan, that doesn’t mean he will achieve it

  13. John
    John March 26, 2018 5:28 pm

    OK. So know not squat of this fellow. But might “flat earth” be just a marketing ploy?
    🙂

  14. fred
    fred March 27, 2018 1:40 am

    I heard he became a flat earther to get donations from them.

  15. Mark Call
    Mark Call March 27, 2018 6:48 am

    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…)

  16. FDD
    FDD March 27, 2018 9:59 am

    At 1800 feet you are still lower than me here in Casper, WY.

  17. Scott
    Scott March 27, 2018 3:33 pm

    What am I overlooking? If the Earth is flat, why couldn’t you just drive up to the edge and look over?

  18. Norman
    Norman March 28, 2018 3:39 am

    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.

  19. John
    John March 28, 2018 8:22 pm

    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!

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