The Unraveling of a Rocketman: The Life and Final Flight of “Mad” Mike Hughes

The Unraveling of a Rocketman: The Life and Final Flight of “Mad” Mike Hughes

The air in the Mojave Desert on February 22, 2020, was thin and cool, carrying the kind of quiet that only vast, empty spaces can hold. Near the sun-bleached town of Barstow, California, that quiet was broken by the low murmur of anticipation. A crowd of about 50 people had gathered on a patch of private land off Highway 247. It was a motley assembly, a uniquely 21st-century gathering for a spectacle that felt like a throwback to another era. Th…