Doomed Engineers: Careers even worse than yours

Every time I see Alan Turing's name associated with suicide I get angry and sad. He was killed by PTSD, effectively, given by his own country in gratitude for serving it so effectively.

Perhaps it's because the story's apocryphal, but the story of Perillos of Athens probably belongs here:

"The Bronze Bull, Brazen Bull, or the Sicilian Bull, is an execution/torture device designed in ancient Greece. Perillos of Athens, a brass-founder, proposed to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, the invention of a new means for executing criminals; accordingly, he cast a bull, made entirely of brass, hollow, with a door in the side. The condemned were shut in the bull and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became "yellow hot" and causing the person inside to roast to death...

Phalaris commended the invention, and ordered its horn sound system to be tested on Perillos himself. When Perillos entered, he was immediately locked in, and the fire was set, so that Phalaris could hear the sound of his screams.

Before Perillos could die, Phalaris opened the door and took him away. Perillos believed he would receive a reward for his invention; instead, after freeing him from the bull, Phalaris threw him from the top of a hill, killing him."

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazen_bull

Forgot to mention Frank Rosenblatt of the Rosenblatt Perceptron - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Rosenblatt - killed in boating accident.

Who: Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake

Deceased: 1973

Invention: Winged automobiles

Cause of Death: A suddenly wingless automobile