10 Inventors Killed By Their Own Creations
These committed inventors managed to let their passions get the best of them.
Passion can be a fickle creature. While a select few inventors have become famous and wealthy due to their creations, far more are unsuccessful and fall into obscurity. However, sometimes this obsession with incredible new inventions can prove dangerous. Blinded by excitement and enthusiasm, several inventors have managed to fall victim to the very passion that drove their lives. In this list, we've put together some of the most tragic of these stories, in which some of the greatest (and not so great) inventors from throughout history have been killed by their creations. 10. Henry Smolinski
Invention: Flying car Country: United States Died: 1973 Henry Smolinski was the mind behind the AVE Mizar, planned by Smolinski to be the first commercially available flying car. Looking a lot like someone had just added the sides of an aeroplane to a small car, the AVE Mizar wasn't actually as far off from being a success as you might think. The AVE Mizar successfully flew a short distance during a test run in 1973, although the pilot noticed the right wing mounting attachment had failed, and was able to perform and emergency landing in a field. Handily, being a flying car, they were able to simply drive the AVE Mizar back to the airport (after closing the road to traffic). Unfortunately, just a few weeks later, another test flight ended in disaster. While being flown by creator Smolinski himself, the right wing mounting attachment failed once more. This time though, the wing was reported as folding in on itself, resulting in Smolinski and his passenger Harold Blake's death in the resulting crash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzv4q5EEy1k