The paper describes a fault-tolerant design of a special two-dimensional beam lattice. The morphology of such lattices was suggested in the theoretical papers (Cherkaev and Ryvkin 2019Arch. Appl. Mech.89, 485–501; Cherkaev and Ryvkin 2019Arch. Appl. Mech.89, 503–519), where its superior properties were found numerically. The proposed design consists of beam elements with two different thicknesses; the lattice is macro-isotropic and stretch dominated. Here, we experimentally verify the fault-tolerant properties of these lattices. The specimens were three-dimensional-printed from the VeroWhite elastoplastic material. The lattice is subjected to uniaxial tensile loading. Due to its morphology, the failed beams are evenly distributed in the lattice at the initial stage of damage; at this stage, the material remains intact, preserves its bearing ability, and supports relatively high strains before the final failure. At the initial phase of damage, the thinner beams buckle; then another group of separated thin beams plastically yield and rupture. The fatal macro-crack propagates after the distributed damage reaches a critical level. This initial distributed damage stage allows for a better energy absorption rate before the catastrophic failure of the structure. The experimental results are supported by simulations which confirm that the proposed fault-tolerant material possesses excellent energy absorption properties thanks to the distributed damage stage phenomenon.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling of dynamic phenomena and localization in structured media (part 2)’.