Franz Reichelt
French parachuting pioneer (1878–1912) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Franz Karl Reichelt[1][note 1] (German pronunciation: [fʁants kaʁl ˈʁaɪ̯çl̩t]; 16 October 1878[1] – 4 February 1912),[3] also known as Henry François Reichelt[3] after his French naturalization, was an Austro-Hungarian-born[4] French tailor, inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor, who is remembered for jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower while testing a wearable parachute of his own design. Reichelt had become fixated on developing a suit for aviators that would convert into a parachute and allow them to survive a fall should they be forced to leave their aircraft in mid-air. Although he created and experimented with multiple prototypes of wings and parachute suits over the years, they were by and large failures, to the point that it was a point of contention between newspapers after his death whether or not any of his designs were ever functional.
Franz Reichelt | |
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Born | Franz Karl Reichelt (1878-10-16)16 October 1878 |
Died | 4 February 1912(1912-02-04) (aged 33) Paris, France |
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Believing that a suitably high test platform would prove his invention's efficacy, Reichelt repeatedly petitioned the Paris Police Prefecture for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower. He finally received permission in 1912, but when he arrived at the tower on 4 February he made it clear that he intended to jump personally rather than conduct an experiment with dummies. Despite attempts to dissuade him, he jumped from the first platform of the tower wearing his invention. The parachute failed to deploy and he plummeted 57 metres (187 ft) to his death. The next day, newspapers were full of illustrated stories about the death of the "reckless inventor", and the jump was shown in newsreels.