"Mad" Mike Hughes said "I expect to see a flat disk up there …"
But he was willing to say it was a ball if that’s what he saw.
In his most recent attempt (his target was to attain 5000 feet) - - a parachute can deployed too early or was torn off by the ladder used by Mag Mike to access the cockpit.
A sad day for pseudo-science everywhere.
This video was released by CBS yesterday (on Feb 23, 2020).
Did Mike have a chance of realizing his dream at 5000 feet? No. Various sites describe altitudes much, much higher before you even have a chance to see the curvature of the Earth…
“According to optical researchers, while we can fool ourselves into thinking we see the curvature of the Earth from high mountains, this is usually wishful thinking.”
“You should be able to detect it from an aeroplane at a cruising height of around 10,600 metres (35,000 feet), but you need a fairly wide field of view (ie 60 degrees) and a virtually cloud-free horizon. The reality is that clouds, hills and mountains mean we rarely get to see the kind of perfectly flat horizon where the curve would be most obvious.”
Here is another answer to the question:
https://www.quora.com/At-what-altitude-do-you-see-the-curvature-of-the-Earth
Well, maybe he would have wanted to build a steam-powered rocket if he wasn’t a flat-earther, so I don’t know if we can blame his death on his pseudoscientific beliefs. “Steam-powered rocket” just sounds to me like a fatal accident waiting to happen under any circumstances.
How was this supposed to prove a flat earth? It’s not like there haven’t already been lots of people fly about the earth in rockets.
From what I’ve read he wasn’t really a Flat Earther. That was just hype to generate PR for his wannabe Evel Kinevel daredevil stunts. Sadly he didn’t pay enough attention to safety on this one. Looks like his parachute deployed early and tore off on launch. From that point on he was a deadman.
He wanted to eventually attain an altitude high enough that he could see the disk!
Naturally, he assumes that we could not trust the word of astronauts who had gone before him, higher and longer.
Not sure what he couldn’t have accomplished in a plane. I think it’s safe to say he enjoyed shooting himself into the sky in rockets. Reminds me of the water-powered ones I played with as a kid. Well, some fun is more dangerous than others.
Flat Earther’s claim him… I’m not about to try to convince Flat Earthers that he wasn’t REALLY a Flat Earther - - when I can’t even convince them that there is no commercial airplane in the world that could fly from the southern tip of South America to Australia … if the Earth was a flag disk!
Ah. So he didn’t believe the words of the many people who have actually gone into space. However, he expected that we should all take him at his word.
Not sure I’m following the logic there.