Brilliant Ideas Can Be Riskier Than They Look

Inventors are often remembered for courage, curiosity, and a willingness to try what everyone else considered impossible. Sometimes, though, that same boldness put them directly in the path of danger. A few people on this list were killed by devices they personally invented, while others died testing machines they designed, built, financed, or helped pioneer. Either way, history gave them the harshest product review imaginable. Here are 20 people who died by their own inventions.

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1. Franz Reichelt

Franz Reichelt was a tailor who became obsessed with creating a wearable parachute suit for aviators. In 1912, he tested it himself by jumping from the Eiffel Tower, despite reportedly being expected to use a dummy. The parachute failed immediately, and Reichelt fell to his death in front of witnesses and cameras. 

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2. Otto Lilienthal

Otto Lilienthal was one of aviation’s great early pioneers, and his glider experiments helped shape the future of flight. He built and flew his own designs, proving that controlled gliding was possible before powered airplanes arrived. In 1896, he crashed during a glider flight and later died from his injuries. 

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3. Percy Pilcher

Percy Pilcher was a British aviation experimenter who built several gliders and hoped to develop powered flight. Before he could demonstrate his planned powered aircraft, he flew one of his gliders during a public event. The glider crashed, and Pilcher died from his injuries in 1899. 

Author died more than 70 years ago on October 2, 1899. on Wikimedia

4. Marie Curie

Marie Curie discovered polonium and radium, studied radioactivity for decades, and worked closely with radioactive materials at a time when their dangers weren’t fully understood. Without modern protection, that long exposure damaged her health over time. In 1934, she died of aplastic anemia, which is widely linked to radiation exposure from the very field she helped create.

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5. Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris was a British balloonist who invented a gas discharge valve meant to help control balloon descent. In 1824, he died after the device released too much gas during a flight. The balloon fell, and Harris was killed.

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6. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was a ballooning pioneer and one of the first people to take flight seriously as more than spectacle. He helped develop the hybrid Rozière balloon, which used both hot air and hydrogen. In 1785, while attempting to cross the English Channel, his balloon caught fire and crashed. 

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7. Valerian Abakovsky

Valerian Abakovsky built the Aerowagon, an experimental high-speed railcar powered by an aircraft engine and propeller. It was designed to carry Soviet officials quickly, but in 1921, the Aerowagon derailed during a test trip, killing Abakovsky and several passengers. 

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8. Horace Lawson Hunley

Horace Lawson Hunley helped develop early Confederate submarines during the American Civil War. His most famous vessel, later named the H.L. Hunley, was a hand-powered submarine meant to attack Union ships. In 1863, Hunley took part in a test exercise, and the submarine sank, killing him and the crew. 

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9. Henry Winstanley

Henry Winstanley designed and built the first Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Devon, England. He was so confident in the structure that he reportedly wanted to be inside it during the worst storm imaginable. In 1703, the Great Storm destroyed the lighthouse while Winstanley was inside with several others. 

Henry Winstanley on Wikimedia

10. John Day

John Day was an English carpenter and wheelwright who built an experimental diving chamber. In 1774, he tested it by descending underwater, hoping to prove that a person could survive inside the sealed craft. The chamber failed, and Day died during the attempt. His invention was meant to explore the depths, but it became his tomb.

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11. Max Valier

Max Valier was an Austrian rocketry pioneer who helped push early rocket-powered experiments forward. He worked on rocket cars and later liquid-fueled rocket engines, which were extremely dangerous technologies at the time. Sadly, in 1930, an alcohol-fueled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin, killing him. 

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12. Henry Smolinski

Henry Smolinski co-founded Advanced Vehicle Engineers and helped create the AVE Mizar, a flying car built from a Ford Pinto and aircraft components, which proved to be exactly as risky as it sounds. In 1973, Smolinski died during a test flight when the prototype crashed.

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13. Stockton Rush

Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, died in 2023 when the Titan submersible imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck. Rush had helped develop and promote the experimental vessel, which was built with unconventional design choices that drew criticism from some experts before the disaster. He was piloting the submersible when it failed, killing all five people on board. 

OceanGate on Wikimedia

14. Thomas Midgley Jr.

Thomas Midgley Jr. is often remembered for inventions that had enormous environmental consequences, but his death came from a much more personal device. After polio left him disabled, he created a system of ropes and pulleys to help lift himself from bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation. 

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15. Karel Soucek

Karel Soucek was a Canadian daredevil who designed a custom barrel for extreme stunts. He survived going over Niagara Falls in 1984, which would have been a good time to retire the barrel with dignity, but instead he brought it back. The next year, during a stunt at the Houston Astrodome, his barrel missed the center of the water tank and struck the rim. Soucek died from his injuries.

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16. Michael Dacre

Michael Dacre was a British aviation entrepreneur developing a flying taxi concept called the Jetpod. The project was meant to offer short-range urban air travel, which sounded futuristic and practical on paper, but in 2009, he died while testing the aircraft in Malaysia. 

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17. Sylvester H. Roper

Sylvester H. Roper built steam-powered vehicles, including an early steam velocipede that helped pave the way for motorcycles. In 1896, he was riding one of his machines during a public speed trial when he crashed after reportedly suffering a heart attack. Accounts differ on whether the crash caused the heart attack or the heart attack caused the crash, but either way, his own steam-powered creation was part of his final ride. 

Sylvester H. Roper on Wikimedia

18. William Nelson

William Nelson worked for General Electric and developed a motorized bicycle prototype. In 1903, he took the machine out for a test ride. He fell from it and was killed, making him one of the early casualties of motorized personal transport. 

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19. David Ogle

David Ogle designed the Ogle SX1000, a small British sports car based on the Mini. In 1962, he was driving one when he lost control and crashed. The accident killed him, ending the life of a designer whose car had gained attention for its sleek fiberglass body.

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20. Aurel Vlaicu

Aurel Vlaicu was a Romanian aviation pioneer who designed and built his own aircraft. In 1913, he attempted to cross the Carpathian Mountains in the A. Vlaicu II. The plane crashed, killing him before he could complete the flight. 

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