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