To infinity and … splat!
‘Mad’ Mike Hughes told the world that he thought the world was flat (the clue is in his sobriquet) and to prove it, he would launch himself to a sufficient altitude (in a home made ‘steam’ rocket) from which he could photograph the earth as a flat disc.
Unfortunately, he never made it. The parachute that was intended to land the rocket safely, sheared off at the launch and, in the words of Monty Python’s Flying Sheep sketch Mad Mike did “not so much fly … as plummet” and he ended his days as a ‘kicker’ storyline on the evening news.
Rather pathetically, some flat-earthers are claiming that his death was worthwhile as it drew attention to the elaborate hoax that the earth is, in fact, spherical. If so, it’s hoax that has been circulating since the time of Ancient Greece.
Hughes’ PR representative has since stated that “We used flat Earth as a PR stunt… Flat Earth allowed us to get so much publicity that we kept going! I know he didn’t believe in flat Earth and it was a schtick.” No doubt flat earthers will see that as a hoax too.
There once was a man called Mike Hughes
Who thought that an orbital ruse
Would show the world’s flat,
But he came down with a SPLAT
As a footnote in the day’s evening news