I'd almost lend some credence to that, if some of them weren't building their own rockets and launching themselves into the air to try to prove flat earth: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a19587128/sel...
Flat earthers know damn well that hot air balloons exist. Even if you're in the camp of thinking flat earthers are dumb morons with IQs too low to tie their own shoelaces, it should still be apparent to all of them that hot air balloons are cheaper and safer than hydrogen peroxide rockets. But a balloon ride isn't much of a stunt, a rocket ride is.
What I found most disconcerting about that story was the number of comments throughout the internet expressing regret that Hughes survived. Saying that "Darwin failed", wishing he'd have died for the crime of being wrong about the shape of the earth. Some joking no doubt, but others saying it with enough vitriol to persuade me.
Let them crowd fund a small manufacturing hub out there.