Mad Mike Hughes
Mad Mike Hughes
"Mad" Mike Hughes was an amateur rocket scientist and a believer in the flat earth theory from Apple Valley, California. He is best known for building, designing, and flying his own rockets. In November, 2017 Mad Mike Hughes plans to launch himself 1,800 feet in the air in a home built rocket to take photos proving the Earth is flat. [undefined]
Personal Life
Photo of Mad Mike Hughes in his work as a limo driver [undefined]
Mad Mike Hughes lives and builds his rockets on a 5-acre property that he leases in Apple Valley, California.
He leases the property from Waldo Stakes, the CEO of Land Speed Research Vehicles who's currently working on a project to make a car travel 2,000 mph. Mad Mike Hughes lives on the property with his four cats. [undefined]
Stakes and Hughes relationship formed a few years ago when Hughes approached Stakes about building a rocket.
Stakes receives plenty of these sorts of requests, but this one stood out because Hughes was building it himself.
"Nothing is out of reach," Stakes said.
"Anything can be done.
You just have to put enough money, time and thought into it."
Career
Video of Mad Mike Hughes on his 2014 manned rocket flight filmed with a GoPro camera
Mad Mike Hughes works as a limo driver in Apple Valley, California, earning $15 an hour plus tips.
He previously raced motorcycles.
He has also previously worked as crew chief (auto racing) in NASCAR. In the future he plans on running for Governor of California. [undefined]
Rocketry
2014 Launch
On January 30, 2014 Mad Mike Hughes launched a rocket that he designed and built on a private property in Winkelman, Arizona flying 1,374 feet. After the landing Hughes collapsed due to the g-forces sustained during the landing. He had to be carried out of the rocket and took three days to recover. [undefined]
2017 Launch
Photo of Mad Mike Hughes' 2017 rocket
Mad Mike Hughes'space suit for his 2017 rocket launch
On November 25, 2017 Mad Mike Hughes had planned to use a home built rocket to launch himself 1,800 feet into the air in order to take photos proving the Earth is flat.
The rocket is projected to reach speeds of over 500 mph.
In a November 20, 2017 interview with NBC Washington he said:
"I don't believe in science.
I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the area, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust.
But that's not science, that's just a formula.
There's no difference between science and science fiction."
"If you're not scared to death, you're an idiot," Hughes said.
"It's scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive.
I like to do extraordinary things that no one else can do, and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket.
The location of the jump was planned to be the ghost town of Amboy, California which is located in the Mojave Desert along the historic U.S. Route 66 and is in the Mojave Desert. The fictional town of Radiator Springs in the Disney movie "Cars" was loosely based on Amboy. [undefined]
Mad Mike Hughes got permission from the town's owner, Albert Okura, who purchased the rights to Amboy in 2005 for $435,000.
The launch was originally planned to take place on an airstrip next to a dilapidated hangar. [undefined]
Mad Mike Hughes built the steam rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. The project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp. [undefined]
On the morning of the launch, Hughes will heat 70 gallons of water in a stainless steel tank and then blast off.
He plans to go about a mile reaching an altitude of about 1,800 feet before pulling two parachutes.
Funding
November 24, 2017 Video where Mad Mike Hughes announces that the launch has been postponed due to concerns from the Bureau of Land Management
Mad Mike Hughes financed the $20,000 project through selling space on the rocket to sponsors looking to advertise.
He has sold sponsorship to businesses and organizations including Research Flat Earth, Patriots and Heroes Outdoors, Sammy Tanner Distributing, Burts Construction Inc, Nano Lube Corporation, Juan Pollo, Bimba Manufacturing, and Archie's Ice Cream.
In 2016 Hughes originally launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the launch. However, he was only able to raise $310 of his $150,000 goal. [undefined]
His second campaign on GoFundMe, this time titled "Flat Earth Community Rocket Launch" organized by Research Flat Earth and raised almost $8,000 toward Hughes rocket launch. The funding was provided in exchange for space for the Research Flat Earth slogan on the sides of the rocket. [undefined]
Postponement
On November 24, 2017 Mad Mike Hughes announced that the launch has been postponed.
The Bureau of Land Management had originally left the approval to the launch to the Federal Aviation Agency. The FAA had originally said they would not formally approve the launch but they would not disallow it allowing Hughes to complete the launch. However on November 23, 2017 the Bureau of Land Management told Hughes that he would need FAA permits to conduct the launch at the Amboy, California site. Hughes believes that the Bureau's decision was due to a high up executive seeing all the coverage the launch was getting and deciding they could not allow it. The launch was also postponed since Mad Mike Hughes had been having mechanical problems with "motorhome/rocket launcher" ramp. [1] [undefined]
Mad Mike Hughes is planning to launch on another site located 3 miles away owned by Albert Okura the owner of Amboy, California, which has enough space for the launch. [1]
Future Rocket Launches
Mad Mike Hughes future plans include an excursion into space.
He and Waldo Stakes have already brain-stormed on a "Rockoon," which is a rocket that, rather than being immediately ignited while on the ground, is carried into the atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and lit.
This rocket will take Hughes about 68 miles up.
Death
Mike Hughes was was working on a Science Channel series called "Homemade Astronauts," when he passed away. Chapman said he believes the daredevil had been knocked unconscious during the launch, which took place in South of Barstow, the daredevil rode a homemade rocket into the stratosphere with the intention of disproving the theory the the Earth is round. However, the parachute ripped off at launch and the backup parachutes failed to deploy. He plummeted to his death at the age of 64. [28]