Michel Lotito Ate a Cessna 150 Over Two Years
Michel Lotito became famous as Monsieur Mangetout by consuming metal, glass, rubber and, most famously, a Cessna 150 aircraft.
Michel Lotito turned the impossible-sounding act of eating metal into a performing career. Known as Monsieur Mangetout, or “Mr Eat-All,” the French entertainer consumed objects ranging from bicycles and televisions to a small airplane.
The act that made him famous
Lotito cut objects into tiny pieces with power tools, swallowed the fragments with water and mineral oil, and spread the work over long periods. His best-known feat was consuming a Cessna 150 aircraft between 1978 and 1980.
Guinness World Records estimates that he swallowed more than nine tonnes of metal during his lifetime. Its former “strangest diet” title, awarded to Lotito, has since been retired because “strangeness” is not objectively measurable.
1978–80
Time spent consuming the Cessna 150
9+ tonnes
Estimated lifetime metal consumption
18
Bicycles reported by 1999
57
Age at his death in 2007
Source: Guinness World Records
Photo: Le Dauphiné Libéré archive.
Performance, not a party trick
Lotito’s doctors did not find a simple biological explanation that made his behavior safe. Guinness reported that tests showed an otherwise ordinary organism, while his longtime doctor warned that decades of ingesting glass and metal were wearing down his body.
That distinction matters. The act required deliberate preparation and remained exceptionally dangerous. It should never be imitated.
The geek lesson
Lotito’s fascination was extreme, but his method was patient: one tiny piece at a time across months or years. His story is simultaneously a record of unusual performance and a warning about the physical price of turning shock into a career.
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