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Technological progress is not the iPhone 5 or the Nexus 7. Technological progress is creating things that nobody has ever seen before, things that push humanity forward. You know, like building a machine heavier than air that freaking flies. Sadly, some times these quests end in disaster.
Let’s honour those forgotten geniuses by remembering them and their ultimately fatal inventions.
Engineer Henry Smolinski wanted a car that could fly, everyone’s dream. He called it the AVE Mizar. Sadly, Herny’s invention killed him when he crashed in 1973.
Images by Doug Duncan/Cookieboy’s Toys
Michael Robert Dacre wanted to build flying cars too, a fleet of jetpod air taxis. He crashed when testing his invention on August 16, 2009.
Animgif source: orenikuwa
Romanian aviation pioneer Aurel Vlaicu built the first metal plane in the world, but his arrow-shaped Vlaicu II killed him while trying to cross the Carpathian Mountains.
Images by Wikimedia Commons/Early Aviators
Franz Reichelt was a successful parachute pioneer until he tested his “wearable model” from the Eiffel Tower on February 4, 1912.
Animgif source: British Pathé
Confederate marine engineer Horace Lawson Hunley tried to develop hand-powered submarines during the civil war—until he died testing his invention in South Carolina, on October 15, 1863.
Images by Naval History & Heritage Command
Valerian Ivanovich Abakovsky invented the Aerowagon, an experimental high-speed railcar powered by an aircraft engine. He died along with a few Soviet officials en route to Moscow when the Aerowagon derailed.
Images by Wikimedia Commons/lord_k/Infodon
Another Soviet, Air Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, died while testing his weapon of mass destruction: the ICBM R-16. The second stage engines ignited accidentally at the Baikonur test range, killing many people in the launch pad. Nedelin was the head of the program.
Animgif source: Roscosmos
Max Valier was a German rocket scientist and rocket-car maker who died before he could complete his invention. He was obliterated when one of his liquid-fueled engines exploded on his lab desk.
Images by Library Of Congress/Library Of Congress
Otto Lilienthal was the first person to make repeated and successful gliding flights. Until his lucky streak ended on August 9, 1896.
Photo by AP and Rischgitz/Getty Images
Donald M. Campbell set both water and land speed records in 1964. On 1967, he tried to set the water record again on board his Bluebird K7. At 320mph, the Bluebird went out of control, killing Donald instantly.
Animgif source: British Pathé
Another speed demon, Welsh engineer John Godfrey Parry-Thomas, died in 1927 trying to set a land speed record on board his car: Babs aka Chitty Bang Bang 4. The right-hand drive chain broke while zooming at 170mph, impacting against his head.
Harry Daghlian—interpreted by John Cusack in the 1989 film Fat Man and Little Boy—was a physicist in Los Alamos, working in the Manhattan Project. He died when a 6.3-kilogram plutonium ball—called the Demon Core—burst with neutron radiation.
Animgif source: Fat Man and Little Boy (1989 Paramount Pictures)
Images curated by Attila Nagy
Did we forget anyone? Post your text along with the image, gif or video in the comments.
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Was this just an excuse to post more animated gifs?
How about those GIFs Darrell?
see below
My favourite example of these was a liferaft that was composed of several man-sized glass jars, all lashed together to form a floating “lattice”. The idea was that it would be customisable for the size of the craft it was serving, to cater for the number of people onboard.
He tested this device in the Thames – one of the primary features was that each jar had a lid that could be pulled over in order to shield from waves and rain. He sealed the lid down after getting into it – and you guessed it, no airholes. He died of suffocation before anyone could get to the craft (which was by then in the middle of the river) to unseal the lid.
I’ll have to do a bit of searching to see if I can find the guy’s name…
Does anyone know of a way to block animated gifs on Giz? I know I can use adblock to block each individual one, but I’m looking for a universal solution.
I have installed Gif stopper for chrome https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eaebhojnielfeoillcfnbmkgliokndkm?hl=en-US
*installs*
*hits Escape*
*breathes sigh of relief*
Thanks for that.
You’re welcome, just wish I’d thought of looking sooner, but it’s mostly only been single images up to now which are easy to adblock.
Ahh, thanks for that.
Added these two to the Adblock filter a few days ago:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/*.gif
http://media.gizmodo.co.uk/*.gif
Took me a few mins to realise why I was just seeing captions for some of them!
The looping gif of the guy leaping to his death from the Eiffel Tower is in no way horrifying. Maybe because it’s in black and white and that makes it like it’s not really real. Maybe because it’s in France.
Anyway, no mention of Thomas Midgely jr? He put the lead in petrol and the CFCs in cans of Lynx Aztec… possibly, as Bill Bryson suggests, had the greatest negative impact on the world as we know it.
Midgley accidentally sturng himself up in a pulley system he had invented to help him get out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately, I don’t have an animated gif of what was probably a long and lingering strangulation, but you can read his wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley,_Jr.
Ok, I’ve had another look and, with a heavy heart, I have to say there are definitely no animated gifs of Thomas Midgley Jr strangling himself to death after becoming paralysed with poliomelytis. The best I could find is a distressed cat with a piece of bread round it’s head.
http://nothereforanyone.tumblr.com/post/28836016749
THAT IS THE BEST THING EVER
I AM LAUGHING AT A GIF
Been watching QI eh?
Yup. And reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I think is the source material for QI in any case (elves my arse)….
…just one researcher with a worn copy of the book franticly flicking pages!
bursted?
http://www.burstedwoodprimary.org.uk ?
Did anyone else immediately think of The Man With The Golden Gun when they saw the AVE Mizar? Interesting they were both made at around the same time.
Hah I logged in just to come say this. The Man with the Golden Gun was 1974. This guy died in ’73, and the resemblance is uncanny.
http://www.djwilliamsphotography.com/Events/007/London%20Exhibition%202002/slides/TMWTGG_Flying_Car.jpg
Yep, I thought it was the same thing.
What does ‘bursted’ mean?
It’s a word frequently associated with Mr Diaz
How to piss your readership off. Flood a page with very badly made vomit inducing gifs.
While i dont mind gifs. Why make really bad gifs for the sake of making a really bad gifs. This article would have been far better off and presentable if it had been static photos or youtubes.
Although not strictly his invention, Jimi Heselden, owner of Segway Inc. met his end when he lost control of his Segway and plummeted 213 feet off a cliff in 2010.
Also Marie Curie who invented radiation and cancer.
She discovered radiation, no one invented radiation, and some how I doubt she invented cancer either.
Yeah the Segway guy, that was a sad story that made you kind of bite your knuckles and wonder if it was just you….
Didn’t he actually reverse his Segway while trying to let hikers past, and in the process reversed off the cliff.
You can reverse a segway? Wouldn’t that involve leaning back at a dangerous angle and maybe falling backwards… oh
Pretty sure you mean Donald Campbell… not David
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Campbell
Yes it is Donald
Jesus really!!!
Steve Wilhite invented the GIF in 1987 but was sadly mauled to death by irate Gizmodo readers 25 years later.
When are you going to invent something Jesus?
Donald Campbell…
Is it just me who’s totally disturbed by Batman jumping off the bridge or whatever?
I find myself wanting to laugh out loud every time I see that GIF. It’s followed by massive guilt, and then a loathing at the state of humanity that a video of a man dying could be commonplace on the internet. …But by that time he’s hit the ground again and I’m fighting the urge to laugh.
I think it’s just because it’s just such an abrupt stop. And the dust cloud. It’s just so absurd!!!
It is a bit Wile E Coyote now that you mention it.
I had a good laugh at the flying frog until I realised it was real
And now I have a gif induced headache.
I love the angry people who comment on this website… You make my lunch breaks that much better.
More GIF’s, more comments, more fun…Winning!!
Go Giz!!