Awesome Dangerous

While performing an acro-paragliding stunt over Spain, Kevin Philipp found himself in the worst possible situation. His lines became tangled due to turbulence, and he plummeted towards the Earth. After a failed attempt to deploy his rescue chute, he managed to deploy it manually about one second before impact.

You might think that those PVC pipe potato cannons were fairly innocuous, but they can deal out some serious damage if overpressurized or built with the wrong kind of pipe or glue. The Backyard Scientist performed a series of experiments to figure out just how dangerous they can be, and tests some supposed safety measures.

There are a number of legitimate robot lawnmowers on the market today, but none are as quite as exciting as the one that I Did a Thing built for himself. Instead of navigating on its own, this robot features an FPV remote control setup, and it looks terrifying. We cringed every time we saw him walking near it without shoes on.

Industrial waterjets can be strong enough to slice through metal. So the idea of sticking your hand into one seems like a terrible idea. That’s why the guys at the Waterjet Channel used ballistic gel dummy hands instead of human hands to see just how horrific the carnage of 60,000 PSI of H2O would be.

Most times, hiking involves walking on some kind of solid ground. But this awe-inspiring via ferrata path in Interlaken, Switzerland has adventurers walking along skinny metal rails hammered into the side of a cliff. There’s a cable system you tie into for safety, but it still looks like a walk for daredevils only. Video by enjoytavie.

Wingsuit flyer Jeb Corliss has flown into some very tight places. He recently dropped into the Italian Dolomites, where he zoomed into an area known as the Death Star Run. Though Jeb didn’t use The Force, and there wasn’t a vulnerability in the mountain’s thermal exhaust port. Here’s a 360º view of the same location.

The Backyard Scientist conducts another ill-advised and dangerous experiment by loading himself and a bucket of molten aluminum into a cherry picker, then ascending to 50 feet before pouring the metal into an aquarium on the ground. We’d like to say this was for science, but it’s clearly just for the spectacle.

This video shows the kind of terrifying catastrophe that can happen in a metal factory. J.D. Christopher shared this footage of a fiery disaster on an aluminum extrusion line that he described accurately as opening “a portal to a demon dimension.” Fortunately, nobody was injured in the incident.

The Razor RSF350 is a pint-size electric motorbike for kids. But with a top speed of 14 mph (9 mph with an adult riding it), it’s not exactly fast. JoelCreates figured it could use a few more horsepower, so he outfitted it with an overpowered battery pack and motor controllers. Then, he put his mini-mini to the test in a drag race.

BASE jumping takes serious balls, and the shorter the jump, the bigger they need to be. BIT – BASE inspired travels performed this impressive 60-meter (196-foot) jump from inside of a cathedral somewhere in France. The crazy thing is that this daredevil has done jumps from less than half that height.

Robert “Rocketman” Maddox is back with another crazy jet-powered vehicle which he hopes will be his fastest yet. The Dragon Kart 270-pound thrust engine lets out a bellow that’s sure to wake the neighbors. He’s yet to equip it with brakes or a seatbelt, but he still took the thing for a brief ride.

After a failed attempt to create a squirtgun that fires elephant’s toothpaste, The Backyard Scientist realized the reaction was too slow to make it work. So he set out to reverse engineering Mark Rober’s much more reactive and dangerous devil’s toothpaste, and loaded up his weapon. Definitely don’t try this at home.

Inspired by LockPickingLawyers‘ videos showing how to use a gunpowder-loaded nail gun to break padlocks, The Backyard Scientist wanted to build something a bit more powerful. His goal? Build a weapon that can punch and smash through bricks. It’s also way better at breaking locks, and works as a demolition tool.

You can run down to the Home Depot and pick up a tool that uses gunpowder or compressed air to drive nails. I Did a Thing tried his hand at building his own explosive-powered nail gun, but his looks like a hammer, plus, it’s much more dangerous than off-the shelf tools. Kids, don’t dance barefoot on your lathe.

Turning around on a one-lane road is difficult enough, but when it’s a mountain road with a steep drop-off, it can be downright deadly. That didn’t stop this driver from pulling a U-turn with the rear of his vehicle dangling precariously off the road. We can only assume the minivan has most of its weight over its front wheels.

Russian Stuntman Evgeny Chebotarev is like a modern-day Evel Knievel, performing insanely dangerous and literally back-breaking stunts. In this absolutely bonkers video, he managed to fly all the way through a van that was moving at 50 mph. He wasn’t the one that was moving, just the van was. Here’s another angle.

We’ve seen how circular saw blades can be used to provide traction on ice – at least until they cut all the way through. The Q modified one of those wheeled “hoverboards” to ride on saw blades. He added metal plates to each of the blades’ teeth so it doesn’t dig in as much, but we still wouldn’t want to fall onto them.

Frustrated by a failed project, I did a thing decided to turn to his viewers for some suggestions. Among the stupid and dangerous ideas he tested was a treadmill with a sandpaper belt, a self-heating hot dog, an idiotic way to cut grass, and a food-processor helmet.

After playing around with a gasoline-powered pogo stick you could buy in the 1970s, The Backyard Scientist wanted to see what other kinds of things you could add a gas engine to that don’t need one. So he took a tiny nitromethane-powered engine and revved up a desk fan, a USB charger, and a toothbrush.

Fire breathing is usually a solo endeavor, but not for these guys who turned it into a team activity. Derrick Vermin and his pals pulled off this amazing trick known as the Ascending Dragon, passing fire from one daredevil to another and climbing from the ground floor to the roof of a building.

YouTuber NileRed is known for his dramatic chemistry experiments. Here, he shows off a highly volatile mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide known as “piranha solution,” which work together to absolutely obliterate a hot dog. Needless to say this stuff is incredibly dangerous, so don’t attempt anything like this at home.

Ever wonder what those balls are on aerial power lines? They’re used to prevent small aircraft from running into wires. What’s more interesting is how those balls get installed. Watch as this brave lineman sits on the edge of a helicopter platform, holding the ball between his legs as he heads into the sky and places the ball.

It takes time and effort to learn to throw a boomerang and have it come back to you. But even if we had all the boomerang throwing skills in the world, we wouldn’t attempt what Master S. Kamaraj of Vajram Warriors does – throwing and catching a boomerang with an axe head. He also has done it with a double-sided axe head.

Inventor and maker Colin Furze has been making weapons and vehicles inspired by Far Cry 6. We’ve seen his fireworks backpack, now check out a backpack that belches huge plumes of fire to its sides. In the game, the so-called “Furiosa” backpack can also fly like a jet pack, though.

Working high up at a construction site seems scary enough on its own, but the idea of disassembling the scaffolding you’re hanging from seems even sketchier. At least the two daring workers in this video had safety lines connecting them to the metal ladder they were hanging from, but it’s still a nope from us.

Not long ago, The Backyard Scientist and his pals built a series of dangerous toys. This time, he’s replicated a few toys kids could actually buy, including ones that could strangle you, scramble your brains, and break bones. The highlight: a gas-powered pogo stick that got banned after one year on the market.