While studying Air Force records [in the 1940s], Dr John Stapp realized that simple, everyday car accidents — not plane crashes — were responsible for a huge proportion of pilots’ deaths. Dr Stapp decided to test the limits of humans’ ability to withstand an impact to demonstrate the need for proper restraints in airplanes and in cars. One of the tests, in 1954, in which Dr Stapp, “the fastest man on earth,” rode a rocket-powered sled from zero to 1,019 km/h in five seconds and then came to complete stop in 1.4 seconds, temporarily blinded him due to retinal hemorrhages, broke both of his wrists and caused other injuries. In an earlier test, an engineer named Edward Murphy managed to install both of the two sensors incorrectly, rendering the data useless. “If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way,” Captain Murphy declared after seeing Dr Stapp emerge from the sled bloodied and hurt, spawning his famous law.
From a very good article about self-experimentation.
zero to 633.177245 mph in 5 seconds…yikes