Quote Originally Posted by BD80 View Post
I'm sorry I can't generate an appropriate level of sympathy, but this sounds like Wile E Coyote:

"The daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes was killed in a rocket launch gone wrong ...
It was the third launch for Hughes in one of his homemade rockets and part of his eventual plan to be able to determine for himself, up in the sky, if the Earth was as flat as he proclaimed to believe.
A steel ladder was attached to the rocket's launch ramp to make it easier for Hughes to enter the rocket's cockpit. But when the rocket launched, it ended up hitting the ladder and setting the launch on course for disaster.
"It ripped off a parachute can, which deployed the parachute, which got caught in the thrust of the rocket and kind of took the rocket off course a little bit," ...
The steam-powered rocket wobbled and did a huge arc before crashing less than a minute later.
"He went way up in the sky," ... his goal was 5,000 feet. Then it did an arc and then came straight down and nose-dived into the desert floor about half a mile away from the launch pad."

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/23/80864...omemade-rocket

The article actually paints a sympathetic picture of a lonely man, age 64, whose exploits as a stuntman he feared were forgotten. The entire accident was filmed by the Science Channel.
yes, sad but truly imbecilic...we used to give guys like this the Darwin Award...