Mad Mike's Up the Detroit River Without a Rocket Booster: Stuntman Shunned

Wouldn’t it be cool if Mad Mike Hughes flew in a rocket over the Detroit River – said no one in a position of authority. (Photos via YouTube and Facebook)

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You may have heard of Mad Mike Hughes. No? He’s a daredevil who holds a Guinness World Record for the longest limousine jump ever.

Yes, there’s a category for that.

And it’s fairly tame compared with what Mad Mike – he claims a kinship with the late Evel Knievel, if that gives you any clue into the lengths he’ll go to achieve Guinness book fabulousness – wants to do next.

Cue the rocket scientist jokes. Actually, Mad Mike says, he’s a pretty smart guy who understands how rockets work. So city officials should just chill out and let him strap himself into the cockpit of a rocket on Grassy Island in Wyandotte – or anywhere else that will have him – and soar 350 feet across the Detroit River into Windsor, Canada.

Neal Rubin, a columnist for The Detroit News, writes the city denied Mad Mike’s application, described by special events coordinator Heather Thiede as “one of the more out-there requests” filed with the city.

More Weird Rocket News:

• It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a … Flying Toilet?

Officials at the chemical company BASF, which also owns an island on the Detroit River, shook their heads at the request, too. “Safety is a core value of BASF, and as such, we would not allow our property to be used for such an activity,” a spokeswoman said in an email to Rubin.

This isn’t the first time daredevil Hughes has found himself up a river without a rocket booster.

He’s been peddling the stunt all over the country, only to be dismissed by public officials cautious about liability, potential environmental damage and, master storyteller Rubin concludes, “the potential that the darned fool might kill himself.”

Pffft, says Mad Mike. He’s been there, done that. It’ll be OK.

“Here’s why nothing great happens anymore,” he says. “People think of reasons to say no instead of saying yes.”

Tell Us:

• Let’s have some fun. If you could get a mention in the Guinness World Book of Records, what record would you like to set or shatter?

According to his Mad Mike’s Facebook page, Hughes has taken his quest across the border to Canada and is working with Parliament to make a jump over St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects the Port of Montreal and Lake Erie, on May 30, but there’s a holdup with the Seaway Authority.

• Read Neal Rubin’s full column at The Detroit News.