He obtained French nationality in 1909, adopting the first name François (the French equivalent of the Germanic 'Franz'). The next day, newspapers were full of illustrated stories about the death of the 'reckless inventor', and the jump was shown in newsreels.įranz Karl Reichelt was born on 16 October 1878 in Wegstädtl, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today Štětí, Czech Republic) to Josef Reichelt and Katharina Reichelt ( née Gauger). The parachute failed to deploy and he plummeted 57 metres (187 ft) to his death. Despite attempts to dissuade him, he jumped from the first platform of the tower wearing his invention. 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. 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.īelieving 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. 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. New Zealander AJ Hackett famously performed an illegal bungee jump from the tower in 1987 (see video below) and in 2005, a Norwegian man died during a publicity stunt jump for a clothing brand.Franz Karl Reichelt ( German pronunciation: 16 October 1878 – 4 February 1912), also known as Henry François Reichelt after his French naturalization, was an Austro-Hungarian-born 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. To this day, it’s still illegal to jump from the tower - but that hasn’t stopped daredevil base jumpers and bungee jumpers. The immediate reaction was one of a tragic experiment gone wrong, at least according to the papers from the next day.Īuthorities banned people from jumping from the tower for experiments - although they still allowed dummies to be hurled off. The footage above shows a man with a stick or a ruler apparently measuring the depth of the crater that the man left behind - a 15-centimetre hole. Reports suggest he died instantly, but he was still taken to hospital before he was legally declared as dead. So what happened after he hit the ground?

Never anywhere as high as the 57-metre drop from the lowest level of the Eiffel Tower. He had previously used dummies with his parachute - apparently successfully - but only from the fifth floor of a building. There are whispers that he needed a publicity stunt to get sponsorship - and he had no time for dummies because his patent was soon to expire. He can be seen hesitating on the ledge and moving to jump on several occasions before leaning back. Police officers, who had only given him permission to use a dummy in the jump, tried to stop him and his close friends tried to talk him out of it until the final moment. His intention was that if it worked his contraption, that was described as a bat suit, could be worn by airline pilots and used if their plane got into trouble.Īpparently yes, and he was reportedly very determined to make the jump, even though just about everybody at the scene was trying to convince him otherwise. All Reichelt had to do, reportedly, was open his arms and legs to make a big cross shape and the chute should have opened. Reports said that the parachute was 9kg in weight, and up to 32 metres squared in fabric. If you’ve seen the footage above, you’ll notice that there’s no hint of a parachute opening at all.īut there was one there, a particularly large one according to the French press from the time, who had gathered to see the spectacle.

Franz reichelt wallpaper