Latest / Ridiculous History / Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions: Flyin' or Dyin', Part Two

Transcript

Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions: Flyin' or Dyin', Part Two · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. This is part two of
0:36
Speaker 1: what will be a continuing series. We got very, very
0:41
Speaker 1: into the idea, or not into, I don't know, fascinated
0:44
Speaker 1: by the idea of inventors who died by their own inventions.
0:49
Speaker 1: We thought it would be one episode, it might be
0:51
Speaker 1: a series. We thought we would do just one episode
0:55
Speaker 1: on all the people who died trying to fly. But
0:59
Speaker 1: here we are shout out to super producer Max Williams.
1:03
Speaker 1: Here we are an old It's part two. A lot
1:07
Speaker 1: of people died trying to fly. Oh yeah, yeah, but
1:11
Speaker 1: two also, I would jump in this might be very
1:16
Speaker 1: morbid because I've already flown out by on vacation by
1:19
Speaker 1: this point. So we hope you made it, buddy. Yeah,
1:22
Speaker 1: me too. Yeah, don't tie. You're safer than you would
1:25
Speaker 1: be in a car. Really, really, do you have a
1:28
Speaker 1: statistics about that? Yeah, we'll get to it. The stories
1:34
Speaker 1: of people who died trying to fly keep going. I
1:37
Speaker 1: want to introduce a tailor to you now, folks. Tailor
1:41
Speaker 1: by the name of Franz reiki. He died while testing
1:46
Speaker 1: not an airplane but his own invention, which he called
1:51
Speaker 1: the coat parachute. He jumped off the first deck of
1:55
Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower. H This guy was fascinated by the
2:01
Speaker 1: innovations that he saw in the early days of airplanes
2:04
Speaker 1: and being a cool dude. He was also concerned about
2:09
Speaker 1: the people in those airplanes. There were a lot of
2:11
Speaker 1: crashes back in those days, so he wanted to use
2:14
Speaker 1: his tailoring skills to make a you could call it
2:19
Speaker 1: a a parachute suit, which is a fun tongue twister.
2:24
Speaker 1: Is this like an inspector gadget kind of situation? Like
2:28
Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah, it kind of seems like it like
2:30
Speaker 1: you pull a string and your trench code in flates
2:33
Speaker 1: and you float gently down to the safety. You gotta
2:36
Speaker 1: see the photos. Also, I want to jump in here
2:39
Speaker 1: because used to the first deck of the tower. So
2:41
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here, like how high up is that? And
2:43
Speaker 1: from a quick Google search, it's a hundred and eighties
2:45
Speaker 1: seven feet, so it's not like he's like five ft
2:47
Speaker 1: in the air. He's he's up there. Yeah, that's the
2:51
Speaker 1: that's the part of So that's the thing. There were
2:55
Speaker 1: already parachutes around. They're what are called fixed canopy paras shoots.
3:00
Speaker 1: And there were already parachutes that worked for high altitudes,
3:04
Speaker 1: but our guy Franz wanted a parachute that would help
3:08
Speaker 1: for people jumping from planes very low altitudes. And he said, look,
3:16
Speaker 1: I picture him talking the ear off of his customers
3:23
Speaker 1: right at his at his shop, and you know, he's
3:27
Speaker 1: he's tailoring somebody's pants. He's adjusting their in seam or whatever,
3:32
Speaker 1: and he's saying, you know, I make suits and pants
3:36
Speaker 1: for a living, but I'm really in the parachutes. You
3:39
Speaker 1: guys in the planes. And next thing you know, that
3:41
Speaker 1: poor client is stuck there for thirty minutes while this
3:45
Speaker 1: guy tells them all about how these pants would be
3:48
Speaker 1: better if they were part of a suit that was
3:50
Speaker 1: a parachute. He had a para su there it is,
3:55
Speaker 1: so he said, I want something light enough that a
3:59
Speaker 1: pilot can wear it without restricting their movement too much.
4:03
Speaker 1: But I needed to be durable enough to save that
4:05
Speaker 1: pilot's life if they are at a low altitude they
4:08
Speaker 1: have to jump out of the plane. How James Bond
4:11
Speaker 1: is this? James Bond is going to show up thematically
4:15
Speaker 1: later in this episode, as you might imagine, and he
4:18
Speaker 1: made these prototypes, and all his prototypes were terrible, Like
4:24
Speaker 1: he had dummies, he had mannequins, thank goodness for the
4:27
Speaker 1: first few rounds, and they just fell to the ground.
4:32
Speaker 1: The parachute wasn't catching enough air. He was notable in
4:38
Speaker 1: the public sphere, in the media of the day, and
4:40
Speaker 1: he would say things like my invention is like nothing else.
4:44
Speaker 1: It's constructed basically half in waterproof fabric and half in
4:48
Speaker 1: silk thanks to a system of rods and belts that
4:51
Speaker 1: one can control the parachute deploys during a fall, and
4:55
Speaker 1: we'll save a pilot's life. That's big talk when all
4:59
Speaker 1: your dummies are hitting the ground almost immediately. Uh. Not
5:04
Speaker 1: to be dissuaded, Franz tried one out himself one of
5:08
Speaker 1: his earlier prototypes. He jumped, he pulled, he tried to fly,
5:14
Speaker 1: He broke his leg. Yeah, did you ever do that
5:17
Speaker 1: thing with the eggs in school? Or you have to
5:20
Speaker 1: like keep the eggs from breaking, and they're all you
5:22
Speaker 1: could do in any different number of ways, sort of
5:24
Speaker 1: like Pinewood Derby style, but like a lot of people
5:26
Speaker 1: did parachutes or like you know, different kinds of packing.
5:30
Speaker 1: But it wasn't easy. It's not easy. Uh. And and
5:32
Speaker 1: this guy seems like he went to the human trial
5:35
Speaker 1: part of the experiment a little over his zendless thing
5:38
Speaker 1: a little too early. I remember in seventh grade doing
5:41
Speaker 1: that doing the experiment. Was a couple other classes did it,
5:44
Speaker 1: and all the other classes, like teachers got on top
5:46
Speaker 1: of like a ladder drop that mine was like a
5:48
Speaker 1: gym coach and got off the topic just like would
5:49
Speaker 1: chuck him down like full like fourth throw spiking. That's unfair. Yeah,
5:54
Speaker 1: he's spiking them from the top of of a ladder. Uh.
5:57
Speaker 1: Mine did not make it, by the way, it a
6:00
Speaker 1: commitment to the bit, you know what I mean. Like
6:02
Speaker 1: it's like I I believe in myself. Um, but yeah,
6:06
Speaker 1: I can imagine a lot of those ending in failure.
6:09
Speaker 1: What happened here? Then? Oh yeah, So he's convinced it's
6:14
Speaker 1: not me that's wronged. He says, it's the way it's
6:18
Speaker 1: being tested. What I need to do to make sure
6:21
Speaker 1: this works is to jump from a higher elevation. That's
6:26
Speaker 1: the problem. I broke my leg because I wasn't brave enough.
6:31
Speaker 1: In an interview before his death, he says the suits
6:34
Speaker 1: has not had time to make contact with the air.
6:37
Speaker 1: If I had fifty or one d instead of the
6:41
Speaker 1: results would be wonderful. I will prove it one day. Uh.
6:46
Speaker 1: And something that really changed his mind here, nol or
6:48
Speaker 1: something that really, um, I guess compelled him was the
6:54
Speaker 1: aero Club de France, who offered a prize of ten
6:59
Speaker 1: thousand francs books to anyone who could create a safety
7:03
Speaker 1: parachute four aviators that was lightweight. As long as it
7:08
Speaker 1: didn't weigh more than and it worked, they would give
7:12
Speaker 1: you ten thousand francs. That's why he starts looking at
7:16
Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower and he goes to the police and says,
7:22
Speaker 1: I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I made
7:25
Speaker 1: this awesome parachute. I need you to let me jump
7:28
Speaker 1: off the Eiffel Tower. And of course they say, no,
7:31
Speaker 1: you're crazy, that's not gonna work. Yeah, no, we can't
7:36
Speaker 1: be held responsible. You know. It's like, do you think
7:39
Speaker 1: those like fly guys get permission to to climb their
7:42
Speaker 1: way up of buildings or like the dude the tight
7:45
Speaker 1: rope walk between the twin towers. Now you're you're doing
7:48
Speaker 1: a crime. And the reason is because liability. The people
7:52
Speaker 1: can't be held responsible for for the insane daring do
7:55
Speaker 1: of others. So this always involves some form of dress passing. Uh.
8:00
Speaker 1: It's also why, you know, self experimentation is still highly
8:03
Speaker 1: controversial and and I think considered pretty unethical, uh, in
8:06
Speaker 1: in the medical field and in research. Yes, yeah, no,
8:11
Speaker 1: I mean it's true. It's a debate that continues today.
8:14
Speaker 1: And like many other people, I love that you mentioned
8:16
Speaker 1: the fly guy, our boy Frands decides that maybe it's
8:21
Speaker 1: better to play along, Maybe you should have asked forgiveness
8:25
Speaker 1: rather than permission. But he badgers the police for an
8:31
Speaker 1: entire calendar year, and they finally say, okay, you gotta
8:37
Speaker 1: stop coming to the station. We will let you test
8:40
Speaker 1: the parachute, so long as you use a dummy or
8:44
Speaker 1: mannequin that's roughly human sized. You just can't have a
8:50
Speaker 1: living person jump off the Eiffel Tower with your cockamami
8:54
Speaker 1: parachute idea. And he says, yeah, absolutely, I get it.
8:58
Speaker 1: You know, we are agreed on this. And so around
9:02
Speaker 1: seven am on February four n he gets journalists, he
9:07
Speaker 1: gets cameramen, he gets friends and family to watch him
9:12
Speaker 1: leap from the Eiffel tower. That's right, him not a dummy. Everybody, literally,
9:26
Speaker 1: everybody at the scene told him this was a terrible idea.
9:31
Speaker 1: His friends, his family, journalists, a guy who's just working
9:35
Speaker 1: security is saying, dude, don't jump, And he said he
9:40
Speaker 1: had to. He said, I intend to prove the worth
9:42
Speaker 1: of my invention. So one French paper of note La
9:46
Speaker 1: Martine observed that reich Helps determination to jump caused ripples
9:52
Speaker 1: of unease to to spread throughout the crowd. The papers said,
9:56
Speaker 1: quote among the spectators only he seemed happy. Next morning
10:00
Speaker 1: there everyone thought he would kill himself. Uh yeah, that's
10:05
Speaker 1: definitely a jumper type situation. I wish you would step
10:08
Speaker 1: back from that ledge, my friend. Please, you're making us
10:11
Speaker 1: all really uncomfortable. You could cut ties with whatever, yes
10:15
Speaker 1: if you agree. Yeah, that was a golden era of
10:21
Speaker 1: overenunciation in rock singing. You know, it's like and if
10:25
Speaker 1: you do see me ucky, I mean weird, absurd vowel
10:32
Speaker 1: sounds really nonsensical, but yeah, I like I like Noel.
10:36
Speaker 1: Noel has a great story. True A third eye blind Cossert,
10:41
Speaker 1: which basically saved for a live show show Me Faces
10:45
Speaker 1: Franz write, held is is yelling at the crowd from
10:50
Speaker 1: the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. No, he's seriously.
10:54
Speaker 1: Everybody is telling him this is a bad, bad idea,
10:57
Speaker 1: and he says, you are going to see how I'm
10:59
Speaker 1: not parachute will give your arguments the most decisive of
11:03
Speaker 1: the wrong. I'm gonna do this right right. He's getting
11:10
Speaker 1: heckled by people who will hope he is alive tomorrow
11:13
Speaker 1: and he's not listening. About an hour and twenty two
11:16
Speaker 1: minutes pass, so it's am He is stepping up onto
11:21
Speaker 1: a small table by the edge of the platform and
11:26
Speaker 1: he does this move. This so cinematic. He has a
11:29
Speaker 1: newspaper and he rips part of the newspaper and let's
11:34
Speaker 1: it fly. And he's watching the wind. He wants to
11:37
Speaker 1: see the direction of the wind. Hesitates for a bit,
11:40
Speaker 1: and the crowd is thinking, Okay, we talked him down.
11:44
Speaker 1: He's not gonna do it, or he's going to use
11:46
Speaker 1: a dummy. And he looks at the crowd. We don't
11:49
Speaker 1: know exactly what his facial expression is, but he jumps.
11:54
Speaker 1: He jumps wearing his parachute, and his parachute folds instantly
11:58
Speaker 1: around him. He plummets down to the wrong direction, right
12:04
Speaker 1: of course, of course, the wrong direction towards the craft.
12:06
Speaker 1: But I mean the parachute deploys what incorrectly When you
12:10
Speaker 1: say it folded around him, that just means it didn't
12:13
Speaker 1: really deploy properly. It was like exact, did not catch
12:18
Speaker 1: the air. Because again I keep coming back to the
12:20
Speaker 1: image of Inspector Gadget, but it really was a thing
12:22
Speaker 1: he used a lot. He had this rip cord. He'd
12:24
Speaker 1: pull on his gray, you know, kind of iconic trench coat,
12:27
Speaker 1: and then it would it look like he would either inflate,
12:30
Speaker 1: which wouldn't make sense unless it was like, you know, airtight.
12:33
Speaker 1: Presumably Inspector Gadget was some sort of hybrid robot man
12:36
Speaker 1: um cyborg exactly, but I think it really was meant
12:41
Speaker 1: to because also I would say that the design of
12:44
Speaker 1: Inspector Gadget is based almost entirely on Inspector Clusseau from
12:48
Speaker 1: the Pink Panther movies. That the same you know, Fedora,
12:51
Speaker 1: even like he resembles him, like in the shape of
12:54
Speaker 1: his nose and stuff. But I would not be surprised
12:58
Speaker 1: if that was a nod to this guy, the Inspector
13:00
Speaker 1: Gadget parachute coat. That's an interesting theory. And you know,
13:04
Speaker 1: as an eagle scout, I always admired Inspector Gadget. That
13:09
Speaker 1: dude was prepared. You know, he was walking the walk,
13:13
Speaker 1: maybe in a silly way, but he was also a fool,
13:16
Speaker 1: and he he needed his this little niece, Penny and
13:18
Speaker 1: her dog to solve his crimes for him from behind
13:22
Speaker 1: the scenes. Also love the Penny had this thing that
13:24
Speaker 1: she called a computer book, which is now a tablet
13:29
Speaker 1: like love Dr Claw. Uh, there is one canonical version
13:36
Speaker 1: of claws actual face from an action figure. It was disappointing. No,
13:42
Speaker 1: keep the mystery alive. Don't really don't don't know he'll
13:46
Speaker 1: be disappointed. You're not gonna like it, alright, Well, uh,
13:52
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm the crowd at the Eiffel Tower
13:56
Speaker 1: and you are you looking for Dr Clau's face is
13:59
Speaker 1: like trying to test out your parachute suits. I like it,
14:03
Speaker 1: I like it. I don't like it. It's disappointed. He's
14:06
Speaker 1: go kind of like a like a uh, what's his name?
14:10
Speaker 1: What's that? Director? Jim jarmash kind of hair, he's got this,
14:15
Speaker 1: he's got a scar and in his mouth. But I
14:18
Speaker 1: always pictured him being an android too, or someone more
14:21
Speaker 1: like Memra from from from ThunderCats. So I will say
14:26
Speaker 1: based on the voice and based on the mystery, was better.
14:29
Speaker 1: But I kind of I dig the I dig this design,
14:32
Speaker 1: you know. I I maybe I'm being too hitchcocky and
14:36
Speaker 1: maybe I'm saying the imagination is more terrifying than what's
14:39
Speaker 1: seen on screen. But if you want to, if you
14:41
Speaker 1: want to see a good reveal of an enigmatic villain,
14:45
Speaker 1: check out check out Cobra Commander and in the animated
14:51
Speaker 1: g I Joe film. Now that was a good reveal. Uh.
14:54
Speaker 1: I also bet you this Dr Clauw action figure fetches
14:58
Speaker 1: a pretty penny if you have an unopened one, because
15:01
Speaker 1: it looks like the boxed version. The face is obscured
15:06
Speaker 1: with like a sticker. It says, reveal the mysterious Doctor Claw.
15:11
Speaker 1: I just have a feeling that one is not particularly common.
15:14
Speaker 1: But let's see. Yeah. Well, one thing we won't find
15:18
Speaker 1: is an action figure of our pal Frounds because it
15:21
Speaker 1: would be in very poor taste. This is not an
15:24
Speaker 1: action figure you want to create. You don't want the
15:27
Speaker 1: army man aspect with a parachute because his parachute did
15:32
Speaker 1: not work. Noble attempt. It was assured he was, as
15:37
Speaker 1: a newspaper of the time wrote, two seconds after he
15:41
Speaker 1: jumps in a pitiful wreck, he lay on the icy grass.
15:45
Speaker 1: He fell almost standing. Blood trickled through his mouth, nose,
15:48
Speaker 1: and ears. His right arm and leg were crushed, his
15:52
Speaker 1: skull and back were broken. He died instantly. But don't worry, folks,
15:57
Speaker 1: the story goes on. There are some more or brilliant
16:01
Speaker 1: people who have died trying to fly. Now there's one
16:04
Speaker 1: that we wanted. I was thinking we skip, but uh,
16:08
Speaker 1: I had some insider info from our super producer Max. Uh. Max,
16:15
Speaker 1: where where are we going with this? You've promised this
16:18
Speaker 1: an Easter drag in the notes, So there's actually an
16:20
Speaker 1: Easter dragon Scarram. It's in more Wind as well, but
16:23
Speaker 1: um Scarum is the one that we're referencing too. So
16:26
Speaker 1: you just kind of will be like running through the
16:27
Speaker 1: wild of sky Roum and you can happen upon a
16:31
Speaker 1: major who is like summoning a spell, and when you're
16:35
Speaker 1: close on and he will shoot himself into the air.
16:37
Speaker 1: You'll just hear him giggling and celebrating and screaming being like,
16:40
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's amazing. I can fly. Kind of
16:42
Speaker 1: like a version of that. Yes, I remember this, but
16:46
Speaker 1: but but he reaches like the like, you know, the
16:49
Speaker 1: peak of his ascent, and then you hear his tone
16:53
Speaker 1: kind of change as he starts plummeting back down to
16:56
Speaker 1: the ground. Two more of a scream, and then he
16:59
Speaker 1: splashed on the ground and dies because he clearly had
17:02
Speaker 1: finally figured out how to make himself fly, but he
17:04
Speaker 1: had never figure out how to land. Yeah, that's a
17:08
Speaker 1: big part of it, Like the landing a big part
17:11
Speaker 1: of it. He really reminds me a lot of our
17:13
Speaker 1: first guy, Ben, you jumped off the mosque. That seems
17:16
Speaker 1: like a similar scenario in terms of that a moment,
17:19
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, everybody's gotten over their head in one
17:24
Speaker 1: endeavor or another. Uh, this is uh, let's put on
17:28
Speaker 1: our car stuff caps really quickly and fast forward to
17:31
Speaker 1: the modern day. It's a guy named Henry Smolensky. Henry
17:36
Speaker 1: Smolinsky is the type of dude who looks at a
17:39
Speaker 1: Ford Pinto and thinks, why the hell isn't this already
17:43
Speaker 1: a plane. I don't know if we've all been there,
17:45
Speaker 1: but that's where that's where his head's at. Yeah, I
17:49
Speaker 1: do feel as though it'd be cool if we were
17:53
Speaker 1: in more of like a flying cars era of the future.
17:57
Speaker 1: But also, let's just talk about the logistics of that
18:00
Speaker 1: seems very unmanageable. I mean, think of all of the
18:02
Speaker 1: personnel it takes just to keep flights commercial flights, you know,
18:06
Speaker 1: in private planes from crashing into one another, and like
18:09
Speaker 1: all of the you know, pomping circumstances around takeoff and landing,
18:12
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. If people were just driving flying
18:15
Speaker 1: cars everywhere, there'd be mid air collisions left to right.
18:19
Speaker 1: It'd be a nightmare health game. And I hate to
18:21
Speaker 1: say it, man, but I've I had a long standing,
18:27
Speaker 1: long standing argument with my good pals Scott Benjamin on
18:31
Speaker 1: the show car stuff about everything that floats, fly, swims
18:34
Speaker 1: or drives, because Scott was very much against flying cars,
18:39
Speaker 1: and I was, to be completely honest, I understood his
18:43
Speaker 1: problems with the the idea. He's right, by the way,
18:47
Speaker 1: and you're right, noal flying cars on mass or a
18:50
Speaker 1: terrible idea. My position was, flying cars are awesome if
18:54
Speaker 1: I'm the only one who has one, and it's like,
18:56
Speaker 1: that's the only realistic way to think about flying can't
19:00
Speaker 1: tell anybody. Don't tell anybody, because if people know that
19:02
Speaker 1: you have. If people know that Ben has one, then
19:04
Speaker 1: then everyone else to know. Well if I had one,
19:08
Speaker 1: if I had one, you guys know how I am.
19:10
Speaker 1: If I if I had one, then I would try
19:12
Speaker 1: to get you guys each. I feel like the four
19:16
Speaker 1: of us, Max and you KNOWL and me and you listening,
19:20
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historian. I think it's already gone too far.
19:23
Speaker 1: It's already got to who's next. Who's next? Well, that's
19:27
Speaker 1: the thing. Humans have never been particularly gassed about settling
19:32
Speaker 1: on anything. So as soon as the first cars are
19:36
Speaker 1: rolling out, the first internal combustion vehicles or are rolling
19:40
Speaker 1: out and there becoming a real thing. Instantly people look
19:44
Speaker 1: at these amazing machines and say, why can't this fly? Uh?
19:49
Speaker 1: The fancy name for it is a rotable aircraft. And
19:54
Speaker 1: we know people have been working on this for a
19:55
Speaker 1: while because the first patent for something like a flying
19:59
Speaker 1: car comes about in nineteen eighteen by a guy who
20:04
Speaker 1: I I put this name in here because I knew
20:07
Speaker 1: we would all love it. No, this guy's real name
20:09
Speaker 1: is Felix Longobardi, because of course it is. Why wouldn't
20:14
Speaker 1: it be Felix Longobardi patented a vehicle with retractable wings
20:19
Speaker 1: that also had propellers. It was sort of like a
20:22
Speaker 1: like a like a like a C to air kind
20:26
Speaker 1: of situation. So if you if you hit the water,
20:29
Speaker 1: you'd have these propellers. It would allow you to carry on,
20:32
Speaker 1: you know, moving. Is it more of a fail safe
20:34
Speaker 1: bend or is it really meant to be a multi
20:38
Speaker 1: terrain vehicle? Well? Uh, you know it never really wait
20:44
Speaker 1: for it got off the ground. I think I think
20:49
Speaker 1: in an ideal world it's a multi terrain vehicle. It's
20:52
Speaker 1: it can be a boat if it needs to be.
20:54
Speaker 1: It can be a car if it needs to be.
20:56
Speaker 1: It can be a plane. It's a beautiful idea. It
20:59
Speaker 1: just didn't work out quite as Felix wish. Uh. There
21:02
Speaker 1: was another thing. A guy named Robert E. Fulton creates
21:05
Speaker 1: the Airphibian. I love that name Airphibian. Uh. And this
21:12
Speaker 1: this one makes it to the prototype stage. It gets
21:17
Speaker 1: certified by a government organization, the Civil Aeronautics Administration. But again,
21:23
Speaker 1: if you look through your local parking lot, you will
21:26
Speaker 1: see that there are no Airphibians nestled there next to
21:30
Speaker 1: your cameras and your God forbid Honda Honyssey's Can you
21:35
Speaker 1: imagine a Honda Odyssey and the sky would be like
21:39
Speaker 1: everyone see no, by the way, I'm not gonna say
21:41
Speaker 1: anything else, no spoilers, but it's very cool movie. Uh
21:44
Speaker 1: but can you imagine if if Honda Odyssey just kind
21:47
Speaker 1: of came at you from the clouds dive bombs you
21:50
Speaker 1: ban that one that's been stalking you low these many years. Well,
21:56
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not thank you. Thank you guys
21:59
Speaker 1: for that. Uh So we know each other too well, Yes,
22:06
Speaker 1: you are correct, sir, But what what we're establishing here
22:09
Speaker 1: is that by hook or by crook, so many people
22:13
Speaker 1: have tried to make cars fly, and the vast majority
22:18
Speaker 1: of these attempts have been unsuccessful. They haven't made it
22:21
Speaker 1: to a U a full production phase. Right. It's it
22:26
Speaker 1: would be weird for you to see a flying car
22:30
Speaker 1: casually in the field. If you see something calling itself
22:34
Speaker 1: a flying car erotable aircraft today, you're probably at a
22:38
Speaker 1: special event. You're probably not stuck in traffic. But these
22:42
Speaker 1: previous failures did not stop our guy, Henry Smolinsky, until
22:47
Speaker 1: you know, it did stop him. He has some bota fides.
22:59
Speaker 1: He was an aeronautical engineer out in California, and he
23:02
Speaker 1: and his pal fellow college student Harold Blake, they had
23:06
Speaker 1: both graduated from the Northrop Institute of Technology, their aeronautical engineers.
23:12
Speaker 1: They started a company pretty recently nine it's called Advanced
23:17
Speaker 1: Vehicle Engineers, and they make something called the A V
23:21
Speaker 1: E MISAR M I Z A R. And this is
23:26
Speaker 1: a this no kidding, please look at the picture if
23:29
Speaker 1: you're able to pull this up on your browser choice.
23:33
Speaker 1: They took a Ford Pinto, yes, the famous Ford Pinto,
23:38
Speaker 1: and they smacked the back half and wings of a
23:44
Speaker 1: small plane Assessma Skymaster onto it. So if you look
23:48
Speaker 1: at it, it looks like a Ford Pinto that had
23:53
Speaker 1: some video game friends. It looks like someone had some DLC,
23:58
Speaker 1: some downloadable content. They did DLC thing to this Ford Pinto. U. Okay,
24:08
Speaker 1: it looks weird. It looks like it cannot fly, but
24:12
Speaker 1: they wanted it to, you know, fly. They would use
24:16
Speaker 1: the car engine the aircraft engine to take off, which
24:20
Speaker 1: would shorten the time it needed on the runway, and
24:23
Speaker 1: then once you're in the air, you turn off the
24:26
Speaker 1: car engine. And the ideas that it would have uh
24:32
Speaker 1: wings supports that could extend you could tie down the
24:35
Speaker 1: wings like any other aircraft, and if you wanted, how
24:38
Speaker 1: inspector gadget is this, you could detach the Skymaster part.
24:43
Speaker 1: You could get rid of the wings and the plane
24:48
Speaker 1: engine and you could just drive your Ford pinto out. Yeah.
24:52
Speaker 1: I like this in theory, but again in practice sort
24:55
Speaker 1: of another story. People felt the same, at least in
24:59
Speaker 1: terms of the excitement part. In nineteen seventy three, things
25:02
Speaker 1: were going super well, first Leminski and a V E,
25:05
Speaker 1: and by mid nineteen seventy three there were two prototypes
25:07
Speaker 1: that he had built and three more were in development
25:10
Speaker 1: and actually starting to be built. One prototype was slated
25:13
Speaker 1: for uh display at a Van Nye h Ford dealership
25:18
Speaker 1: owned by one of a V's partners, Bert Bochman. The
25:22
Speaker 1: other prototype was fitted with a Teleedne Continental motors to
25:26
Speaker 1: ten horsepower engine, and it was unveiled at a press
25:30
Speaker 1: event on May eighth, nineteen seventy three, and both vehicles
25:32
Speaker 1: for photographed by a very well known photographer belonging to
25:36
Speaker 1: Peterson Publishing Group named Mike Brenner for hot Rod magazine.
25:41
Speaker 1: This is a big deal, is making some waves. I
25:44
Speaker 1: like how you see a hot Rod magazine too that
25:46
Speaker 1: felt really cool. Uh. Yeah, they they're getting f a
25:50
Speaker 1: a certification. They're doing flights to get this certification. Rather
25:56
Speaker 1: and a partner with someone who will be well known
26:00
Speaker 1: to any any gear head, any fellow car enthusiasts. An
26:04
Speaker 1: automobile dealer named galpin Ford. Galpin Ford you might recognize. Uh,
26:11
Speaker 1: they have a have a like a subsidiary, a customer
26:15
Speaker 1: arm called galpin Auto Sports, which is the garage from
26:19
Speaker 1: Pimp My Ride Shout Out exhibit. You know, he's the
26:22
Speaker 1: guy who heard you like trunks, so puts the trunk
26:26
Speaker 1: in your trunks so you have more trunk space in
26:28
Speaker 1: your trunk anyway, Yeah, I'm more room for for for
26:32
Speaker 1: for the sub subway first, Uh you go in the trunk. Also, man,
26:36
Speaker 1: I'd say, what was it in We were somewhere maybe
26:39
Speaker 1: it was Dallas. There there were a lot of hypercolor
26:43
Speaker 1: kind of like uh, spinner really was very popular, like
26:47
Speaker 1: those like kind of led spinner rims. It seemed like
26:49
Speaker 1: there was like a whole gaggle of like you know,
26:52
Speaker 1: ones running together and like cruise almost like like like
26:55
Speaker 1: like the like the dirt bike and a TV gangs
26:58
Speaker 1: that roam the streets of a Also those three wheeled
27:03
Speaker 1: cars that are also very like Tron looking, and a
27:06
Speaker 1: lot of those in Dallas too. Yeah, yeah, and they're fun.
27:10
Speaker 1: I I have not bought one, I've driven around on one,
27:15
Speaker 1: but they're they're pretty fun. I just don't know if
27:18
Speaker 1: they're a daily driver because they don't have a time.
27:22
Speaker 1: They're not. They'd be like go kart prices. Now they're
27:24
Speaker 1: street legal, questionably so, but yeah, they're like it's as
27:28
Speaker 1: much as like a sedan, A little bit of a
27:30
Speaker 1: flex for sure. And here's how popular the Here's how
27:34
Speaker 1: popular Smlinsky's vehicle was. It was going to be featured
27:40
Speaker 1: in a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden
27:44
Speaker 1: Gun four and that same year was featured. It was
27:49
Speaker 1: going to hit dealerships and if you wanted to buy
27:53
Speaker 1: one of these Ford Pinto Cessna's, it's if you wanted
27:58
Speaker 1: to buy this, you would pay about eighteen thousand, three
28:02
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for the bottom of the barrel, all the
28:04
Speaker 1: way up to twenty nine thousand dollars with all the
28:07
Speaker 1: bells and whistles. At this point, it is time for
28:10
Speaker 1: our inflation calculator. We got some boops, we've got some beeps.
28:15
Speaker 1: Keep a boo boo, boop bee doop wonderful. That is
28:25
Speaker 1: our inflation calculator. Eighteen thousand, three hundred dollars in nineteen
28:30
Speaker 1: seventy four is about one hundred and eight thousand, one
28:34
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy three dollars and seventy four cents today.
28:38
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like a cheap skate, but
28:41
Speaker 1: I think that's a lot for a car. I have
28:44
Speaker 1: a question. I mean, I don't know, I'm gonna ask
28:46
Speaker 1: a question, and I think no one in the history
28:47
Speaker 1: of question asking has ever asked why does there have
28:51
Speaker 1: to be inflation? Why can't things just stay the same? Man?
28:58
Speaker 1: Is it about population increase and demand on resources and whatnot?
29:03
Speaker 1: Just because capitalism is a Ponzi scheme that will ultimately
29:06
Speaker 1: collapse on itself. These are good questions. Yeah, yeah, it's
29:09
Speaker 1: sort of like why, you know, like companies have to
29:11
Speaker 1: show year over year growth or else. You know, like
29:16
Speaker 1: there comes a point where how is that even possible?
29:19
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean it is. They they'll make
29:20
Speaker 1: it possible, or they'll do it with like creative accounting um.
29:24
Speaker 1: But it's just it does seem like a like a
29:26
Speaker 1: losing proposition at the end of the day unless you're
29:29
Speaker 1: in podcasting. Okay, yeah, we we gotta show growth. To man,
29:34
Speaker 1: the boss will be looking at those numbers. Not jeez,
29:37
Speaker 1: not jeez. Uh. Well, at least we're not selling Honda
29:40
Speaker 1: Odyssey's So everything is everything is perfect for Smolinsky and co.
29:47
Speaker 1: Right now, it's nineteen seventy three. Nineteen seventy four is
29:51
Speaker 1: gonna be a big year. Everybody's excited. They're doing the
29:54
Speaker 1: test flights. Stuff is looking pretty legit until late August
29:59
Speaker 1: ninet seventy three there's a pilot named Charles Genie, and
30:05
Speaker 1: Charles says, okay, I'm on this test flight and right
30:09
Speaker 1: wing strut attachment has disconnected. The wing is unsupported. It's
30:15
Speaker 1: just flapping around like the ario knots of old. You
30:19
Speaker 1: know that the flappity flappity leads to the splattit e splattity.
30:23
Speaker 1: So he says, I can't turn this with the flappity wing.
30:27
Speaker 1: You guys need to look at this. This is a
30:29
Speaker 1: serious design problem. So Spellisky and Blake look at it.
30:34
Speaker 1: They do take this seriously. They fixed the strut and
30:37
Speaker 1: they give it a once over. They take it out
30:40
Speaker 1: again just a few weeks later, and respect to them
30:44
Speaker 1: because they didn't want to endanger anybody else's life. They
30:48
Speaker 1: did to your earlier point self experimentation. Unfortunately, they were
30:53
Speaker 1: not able to fully fix the issue. The support failed
30:56
Speaker 1: once again. Wind Smolinsky himself as the islet tried to
31:00
Speaker 1: make a turn that right wing crumpled, the whole agglomeration
31:05
Speaker 1: of the Pinto and the Cessna crashed. Both men died.
31:10
Speaker 1: These are just a few of the people, not only
31:14
Speaker 1: inventors who died due to their own inventions, but just
31:18
Speaker 1: a few of the people who died trying to fly.
31:20
Speaker 1: So every time you are on an airplane, and one
31:23
Speaker 1: of us is going to be on an airplane very soon,
31:26
Speaker 1: every time you're on an airplane, thank those people. Thank
31:29
Speaker 1: you for that. Wait, I was like, is it, Oh yeah, Max,
31:34
Speaker 1: vacationero phobia. Hey, speaking of landing, I'll send you this
31:41
Speaker 1: Instagram video that'll that'll put your your fears at ease.
31:44
Speaker 1: I saw the most remarkable, just absolute bork landing of
31:48
Speaker 1: a commercial flight on Instagram. It's like the thing it's
31:51
Speaker 1: just coming in at this absurd angle and it hits.
31:54
Speaker 1: It doesn't explode, it just flips over and skids upside down.
31:59
Speaker 1: To a stop. I don't think anyone died, but like,
32:03
Speaker 1: what what terror? Can you imagine the terror? Why did
32:07
Speaker 1: you tell me that? Also because we want to help
32:09
Speaker 1: you confront your aerophobia, manas I even guys, I fly
32:16
Speaker 1: in Alaska out to Seattle even strong the extra fifty
32:20
Speaker 1: six bucks to get business class. Business class. It's like
32:23
Speaker 1: previous Yeah, comfort plus it's like, I mean, I'm six
32:27
Speaker 1: ft tall, um like pounds. I'm gonna give you an
32:30
Speaker 1: ish there. So I clearly don't fit in most planes.
32:33
Speaker 1: So I got that extra four inches. So I was
32:35
Speaker 1: gonna be all it's it's I was gonna enjoy it.
32:38
Speaker 1: But now I'm just to be thinking about the plane
32:40
Speaker 1: nose diving and like you know, cartwheeling down down the runways.
32:45
Speaker 1: For me, I fly all the time. The landing is
32:47
Speaker 1: always that's when things could go south. I like to
32:49
Speaker 1: sit in the very front or in the very back
32:52
Speaker 1: because I like the I like the bump. You know,
32:55
Speaker 1: if I'm if I'm already paying for a ticket and
32:57
Speaker 1: I fly probably too much, honestly. But if i'm if
33:01
Speaker 1: I'm paying for the ticket, then give me a little
33:03
Speaker 1: roller coaster at the end. You know what I'm saying
33:05
Speaker 1: what is life? I always gripped the seat in front
33:08
Speaker 1: of me just a little bit every time, and uh,
33:12
Speaker 1: they haven't haven't had a flipper yet. So you'll be fine, Max,
33:15
Speaker 1: You'll be fine. The odds are in your favor as
33:17
Speaker 1: little as you fly, Max, get a windows seat. Get
33:20
Speaker 1: a windows okay, hell, get the emergency exit seat. That
33:24
Speaker 1: the one that's the one with the most leg room,
33:27
Speaker 1: you know, yeah it is. Also it's the one with
33:30
Speaker 1: the most power and responsibility. I always try to fly
33:34
Speaker 1: and exit seat windows style. You lose a little windows.
33:38
Speaker 1: Sometimes you might just get the porthole. But those people
33:42
Speaker 1: depend on you, and it's cool to be a hero.
33:45
Speaker 1: Maybe am I a little too proactive and a little
33:48
Speaker 1: too enthusiastic when the flight attendant asked me for that
33:52
Speaker 1: verbal yes? Maybe I should just say yes instead of hell. Yeah.
33:56
Speaker 1: These are questions, and they're fair questions. I was my
33:59
Speaker 1: own kind of hero on a flight recently, Ben, there
34:02
Speaker 1: was a particularly obnoxious child who was sitting next to me,
34:08
Speaker 1: and I had the window seat, and her mother was
34:10
Speaker 1: seated next to her in the middle, and then the
34:12
Speaker 1: child and then this is one of these children, there's
34:14
Speaker 1: just like I want the thing that I can't have me,
34:18
Speaker 1: which was the windows seats. I gave her my window seat,
34:21
Speaker 1: and the mother was so appreciative, and the flight attendant
34:24
Speaker 1: heard me do it and rewarded me with sky miles.
34:29
Speaker 1: But mainly, I mainly just didn't want to hear that
34:31
Speaker 1: kid yowling the whole trip, so it was sort of
34:33
Speaker 1: a self serving. But I think in some small way
34:37
Speaker 1: I did a service for everyone on that plane. I
34:39
Speaker 1: will take that. I will take those accolades, Yeah I did.
34:42
Speaker 1: I'm fine with aisle seat. I like either aisle seat
34:45
Speaker 1: or of course, window seat. But I'll see it's good
34:47
Speaker 1: because you can get up anytime. You don't have to
34:48
Speaker 1: worry about bugging. I'm also yeah, I mean, I'm not.
34:52
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm not six. I don't need a window
34:55
Speaker 1: seat anymore. It's fun. I don't mind it. But I
34:57
Speaker 1: think I prefer the aisle seat except getting your elbows back.
35:00
Speaker 1: I like the windows. Planes are amazing. A lot of
35:04
Speaker 1: people died so that we could witness, uh and participate
35:07
Speaker 1: in this fascinating technology. Window seats forever. Uh. And you guys,
35:13
Speaker 1: you know, I'll wave to you and when you're over
35:15
Speaker 1: on the aisle seat, and I respect you and Max.
35:18
Speaker 1: We didn't want this stand on a bad note, and
35:21
Speaker 1: aerophobia is a real thing. Uh, So for you, my friend,
35:26
Speaker 1: we wanted to wrap today's show with a couple of
35:30
Speaker 1: hopefully reassuring facts. You are way safer. You are way
35:35
Speaker 1: safer taking a flight to Seattle than you are taking
35:39
Speaker 1: a road trip. Uh And there are numerous reasons why
35:43
Speaker 1: we pulled some National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data back
35:49
Speaker 1: in uh Let's say the numbers were roughly the same
35:53
Speaker 1: before COVID. There were thirty two thousand more than thirty
35:57
Speaker 1: two thousand fatal car accidents that led to over thirty
36:04
Speaker 1: five thousand deaths. That means that there were people who
36:08
Speaker 1: were not involved with the cars who died. They weren't driving,
36:12
Speaker 1: they weren't necessarily passengers, they died. Uh. And this means
36:17
Speaker 1: that there were one point one three fatalities per one
36:20
Speaker 1: hundred million vehicle miles traveled. That's eleven people for every
36:26
Speaker 1: one thousand US residents. Cars are not subject to the
36:31
Speaker 1: same scrutiny, the same maintenance, the same rigorous regulation as planes.
36:37
Speaker 1: So dude, you are whether you're in the aisle seat
36:40
Speaker 1: or the window seat, nobody wants the middle seat whether
36:43
Speaker 1: whatever seat you're in, Uh, you are way safer than
36:46
Speaker 1: you would be on a road trip, even if you
36:49
Speaker 1: were with me and Mill, which would be epic. We
36:51
Speaker 1: should do a road trip, Oh, I'd love to. Speaking
36:53
Speaker 1: of Earl Pala Scott Benjamin, we did a incredible road
36:57
Speaker 1: trip years ago, actually a road rally, like a scavenger hunt,
37:01
Speaker 1: all across the these United States, and it was a delay. Um. Yeah,
37:05
Speaker 1: we should make that happen again very soon. But in
37:07
Speaker 1: the meantime, I think it's time to put an end
37:09
Speaker 1: to this. Uh, this two parter proactively proactive two yes, yes,
37:15
Speaker 1: that is correct. Uh. And we hope that you have
37:19
Speaker 1: enjoyed this as as much as we did. Folks. Again,
37:23
Speaker 1: every death is a tragedy, but these brave pioneers of
37:27
Speaker 1: the sky have fundamentally changed the way that people interact
37:33
Speaker 1: with their environment. And we hope you tune in for
37:38
Speaker 1: future iterations of this. Let us know, uh, let us
37:41
Speaker 1: know your tales of inventors who have died by their
37:45
Speaker 1: own hands, such as there's a fun fact I throw
37:48
Speaker 1: in because I don't know whether this belongs in a
37:50
Speaker 1: in a full episode, but uh Noel Max did you gout.
37:53
Speaker 1: You guys know the Denver Airport, right, there's that big
37:57
Speaker 1: nightmarish stalion statue. The guy who made that died as
38:02
Speaker 1: a result of that statute. What do you mean as
38:04
Speaker 1: a result? How did he die? Who did this to him?
38:08
Speaker 1: It fell on him? Oh my god, that's awful. There's
38:12
Speaker 1: also an insane mural at Denver Airport this guy, like
38:15
Speaker 1: the the weird gas masks kind of Gestapo figure, swinging
38:19
Speaker 1: a giant saber across a like a rainbow of like
38:23
Speaker 1: indigenous people carrying dead babies. It's very strange. Didn't they
38:27
Speaker 1: move some of that or they got rid of some
38:29
Speaker 1: of it? I don't know. It was always very controversial
38:32
Speaker 1: and there were even, like you know, all kinds of
38:34
Speaker 1: conspiracies scrolling around the Denver for this is news to me.
38:37
Speaker 1: This just happened in two thousand six. The sculptor was
38:41
Speaker 1: killed when part of the blue Mustang statue fell on him, unfortunately,
38:48
Speaker 1: severed an artery in his leg. I thought, you said,
38:51
Speaker 1: we working in it's on a bummer, Ben. That's a
38:54
Speaker 1: total bummer, right, right you are. We don't want to
38:58
Speaker 1: be a bummer. Because he liked the aviation pioneers, in
39:03
Speaker 1: this series. Uh, he did leave a legacy, and it's
39:07
Speaker 1: important to remember that history is closer than it may
39:11
Speaker 1: appear in the rear view. There we go. Oh my gosh,
39:14
Speaker 1: my car stuff is coming out. We got to end
39:16
Speaker 1: the show. At least he didn't sever an artery in
39:18
Speaker 1: his legacy. Am I right? The show already, I'm gonna start.
39:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start ripping off people's names and thank you. Alright, alright, thanks, thanks,
39:28
Speaker 1: thanks Max, thanks for the check in. Also thanks to
39:30
Speaker 1: our super producer Max. Thanks to Alex Williams composed the track. Yeah,
39:38
Speaker 1: Jonathan Streetlin, Alright, alright, we're out, We're out, everybody, We'll
39:42
Speaker 1: see someone. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
39:51
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
39:54
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows