Franz Reichelt
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Franz Reichelt (16 October 1878 – 4 February 1912), also known as Frantz Reichelt or François Reichelt, was an
Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
-born French
tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
, inventor and
parachuting Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...
pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor, who is remembered for jumping to his death from the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
while testing a wearable
parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...
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. Initial experiments conducted with dummies dropped from the fifth floor of his apartment building had been successful, but he was unable to replicate those early successes with any of his subsequent designs. Believing that a suitably high test platform would prove his invention's efficacy, Reichelt repeatedly petitioned the Parisian
Prefecture of Police In France, a Prefecture of Police (), headed by the Prefect of Police (), is an agency of the Government of France under the administration of the Ministry of the Interior. Part of the National Police, it provides a police force for an area lim ...
for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower. He finally received permission in 1912, but when he arrived at the tower on 4February 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 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.


Early life

Franz Reichelt was born on 16 October 1878 in Wegstädtl,
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,
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
(today Štětí, Czech Republic), and moved to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, in 1898. He obtained French nationality in 1909, adopting the first name François (the French equivalent of the Germanic "Franz"). One of his sisters may have also come to France and been married to a jeweller there, but newspaper reports differed on the details of his family life, with most reporting that his sisters stayed in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. Reichelt himself was unmarried. He took an apartment on the third floor at 8 rue Gaillon near the Avenue de l' Opéra from 1907 and opened what was to become a successful
dressmaking A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Notable dr ...
business, catering mostly to Austrians on trips to Paris.


Experiments

From July 1910, Reichelt began to develop a "
parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...
-suit": a suit that was not much more bulky than one normally worn by an aviator, but with the addition of a few rods, a silk canopy and a small amount of rubber that allowed it to fold out to become what Reichelt hoped would be a practical and efficient parachute. The dawn of the aviation age brought inevitable accidents coupled with a growing interest in safety measures, most notably in the development of an effective parachute. Early parachuting successes, such as those of Louis-Sébastien Lenormand and
Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre rançoisBlanchard (; 4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloo ...
, had successfully used fixed-canopy parachutes (already "open" before the jump began), and
André-Jacques Garnerin André-Jacques Garnerin (31 January 1769 – 18 August 1823) was a French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France. Biography André-Jacques Garnerin was born in Paris. During the fir ...
had invented a frameless parachute suitable for use from high altitudes, but by 1910 there was still no parachute suitable for use in jumping from a plane or at low altitude. Reichelt seems to have become interested in parachute design after hearing some of the stories of fatal accidents among the early aeronauts and aviators. His early tests were successful: dummies equipped with foldable silk "wings" touched down lightly when dropped from five floors, but converting the
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
s into a wearable "suit" proved difficult. His original design used of material and weighed around . He presented his design to the leading aeronautic organization, ''La Ligue Aérienne'' at the
Aéro-Club de France The Aéro-Club de France () is one of the oldest French aviators' associations still active. It was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la ...
, hoping that they would test it, but they rejected his designs on the grounds that the construction of the canopy was too weak and attempted to dissuade him from spending further time on development. Reichelt nevertheless persevered and conducted experimental drops with dummies from the courtyard of his building at rue Gaillon. None of his tests proved successful. In 1911, a Colonel Lalance wrote to the Aéro-Club de France, offering a prize of 10,000 francs for a safety parachute for aviatorsdouble the prize he had offered the year before. The competition was open for three years and stipulated that the parachute must weigh no more than . Reichelt refined his design, reducing the weight while increasing the surface area of the material until it reached . But his tests were still unsuccessful and his dummies invariably fell heavily to earth. '' L'Ouest-Éclair'' reported in 1911 that Reichelt had personally jumped from a height of at
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; the attempt failed but a pile of straw helped him escape injury. '' Le Matin'' reported an attempt at Nogent from a height of that resulted in a broken leg. '' Le Petit Journal'' suggested that Reichelt also made at least two apparently inconclusive tests with dummies from the first deck of the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
during 1911, but an interview with one of his friends in '' La Presse'' made it clear that he had been unsuccessfully applying for permission to conduct a test from the tower for over a year before he finally received the authorization for the final jump. There had been other tests from the tower during 1910 and 1911 though; Gaston Hervieu, who employed a dummy aircraft and
mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...
s in his experiments, was attempting to perfect a parachute design to ensure the safe landing of a pilot with all or part of a damaged aircraft. Reichelt attributed the previous failures of his designs at least in part to the short drop distances over which he had conducted his tests, so he was keen to receive permission to experiment from the tower.


Eiffel Tower jump

Reichelt announced to the press in early February 1912 that he had finally received permission and would shortly conduct an experiment from the Eiffel Tower to prove the value of his invention. On Sunday, 4 February, at 7:00 a.m., Reichelt arrived at the tower by car with two friends. He was already wearing his parachute suit. The news footage of his jump shows him modelling his invention in its folded form, which '' Le Gaulois'' described as "only a little more voluminous than ordinary clothing." The suit did not restrict the wearer's movements when the parachute was packed, and ''
Le Petit Parisien ''Le Petit Parisien'' () was a prominent France, French newspaper during the Third French Republic, Third Republic. It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over two million after the First World War. Publishing Despite its ...
'' described the method of deploying the parachute as being as simple as extending the arms out to form a cross with the body. Once extended, the outfit resembled "a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk", according to ''
Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...
''. '' L'Action Française'' reported that Reichelt stated the surface area of the final design to be with a canopy height of , while ''
Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...
'' judged the surface area might have reached . '' La Croix'' claimed that the suit may have weighed as little as . The weather was cold, with temperatures below ,''L'Action Française'' recorded the temperature as at 7 am. and there was a stiff breeze blowing across the
Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...
. Some police officers were present to maintain order, as the Parisian
Prefecture of Police In France, a Prefecture of Police (), headed by the Prefect of Police (), is an agency of the Government of France under the administration of the Ministry of the Interior. Part of the National Police, it provides a police force for an area lim ...
had given Reichelt permission to proceed. After his death, Louis Lépine who, as the Prefect of Police, was ultimately responsible for the permission being granted, issued a statement making it clear that while the police routinely gave permission for experiments to be performed from the Eiffel Tower, it was understood in these cases that dummies would be used. They had given permission in Reichelt's case only on the basis that he would be conducting dummy drops, and that under no circumstances would they have allowed him to proceed if they had known he would be making the jump himself. Lépine assured ''La Croix'' that he had never signed an order that allowed a live jump. From his arrival at the tower, however, Reichelt made it clear that he intended to jump himself. According to a later interview with one of the friends who accompanied him up the tower, this was a surprise to everybody, as Reichelt had concealed his intention until the last moment. His friends tried to persuade him to use dummies in the experiment, assuring him that he would have other opportunities to make the jump himself. When this failed to make an impression on him, they pointed to the strength of the wind and said he should call off the test on safety grounds, or at least delay until the wind dropped. They were unable to shake his resolve; seemingly undeterred by the failure of his previous tests, he told journalists from ''Le Petit Journal'' that he was totally convinced that his apparatus would work, and work well. When questioned as to whether he planned to take any additional precautions, such as using a safety rope, he replied that he would not, since he intended to trust his life entirely to his parachute: Hervieu, who was present to witness the demonstration, also attempted to dissuade Reichelt from making the jump. He was concerned that the parachute needed longer to fully open than the few seconds the drop from the first platform would allow, and he also presented other technical objections to which Reichelt could not provide a satisfactory response. Reichelt finally replied that: Ropes had been suspended between the legs of the tower by the police at Reichelt's request to prevent the crowds from spilling onto the landing zone, and he spent some time discussing the arrangements with the marshals and ensuring that there was sufficient space for his landing before going to the stairs to climb to the first platform. According to ''Le Petit Parisien'', Reichelt's initial attempt to ascend to the first stage of the tower was blocked by a guard named Gassion, who had witnessed previous unsuccessful dummy drops and feared that Reichelt's attempt would end in disaster, though ''Le Figaro'' reported that he had merely not received a copy of the order and had to wait for telephone confirmation from his superiors. Despite the guard's resistance, by 8:00 a.m. the matter had been resolved: Reichelt, who was visibly shaken by his argument with the guard, was allowed to mount the tower with his two friends and a
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
(another was stationed near the foot of the tower to record the jump from below). As Reichelt climbed the stairs he paused, turned back to the crowd, raised his hand and wished them a cheery, "See you soon!" His friends continued to try to talk him out of the jump, but he remained undeterred. At 8:22 a.m., observed by a crowd of about thirty journalists and curious onlookers, Reichelt readied himself – facing towards the
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– on a stool placed on a restaurant table next to the interior guardrail of the tower's first deck, a little more than above the ground. After adjusting his apparatus with the assistance of his friends and checking the wind direction by throwing a piece of paper taken from a small book, he placed one foot on the guardrail, hesitated for about forty seconds, then leapt outwards. According to ''Le Figaro'', he was calm and smiling just before he jumped. His parachute, which had seemed to be only half-open, folded around him almost immediately and he fell for a few seconds before striking the frozen soil at the foot of the tower. ''Le Petit Parisien'' reported that Reichelt's right leg and arm were crushed, his skull and spine broken, and that he was bleeding from his mouth, nose and ears. ''Le Figaro'' noted that his eyes were wide open and dilated. He was already dead by the time onlookers rushed to his body, but he was taken to the Necker Hospital where he was officially pronounced dead, and then on to a police station in the rue Amélie before being returned to his home in rue Gaillon. Édouard Launet, writing in the Summer supplement of ''
Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'' in 2009, mentioned that an
autopsy An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of deat ...
concluded that Reichelt had died of a heart attack during his fall.


Aftermath

The next day's newspapers were full of the story of Reichelt's "tragic experiment", complete with photographs; at least four newspapers, ''
Le Petit Parisien ''Le Petit Parisien'' () was a prominent France, French newspaper during the Third French Republic, Third Republic. It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over two million after the First World War. Publishing Despite its ...
'', '' Le Matin'', '' La Croix'' and ''
L'Humanité (; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist." History ...
'',The Catholic newspaper ''La Croix'' did not publish a Monday edition, but reported the story on the front page of the Tuesday edition. showed images of the fatal jump. Film of the attempt, including footage of Reichelt's body being removed and the onlookers measuring the depth of the crater left by his impact (15 centimetres; 5.9 in), was distributed by news organizations. Initial reports speculated on Reichelt's state of mind: none assumed he had been suicidal, but many called him discombobulated in the brain. A journalist in '' Le Gaulois'' suggested that only half the term "mad genius" applied to Reichelt – although the same report included an interview with one of his friends, who claimed that the tailor had felt pressured into giving a dramatic demonstration to attract sponsors, without whom he could not expect to make a profit before any
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
expired. Reichelt's death was the first to result from a parachuting accident since Charles Leroux died giving a demonstration in
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in 1889. In fact, on 2 February 1912 – two days prior to Reichelt's fatal jump – an American steeplejack, Frederick R. Law, had successfully parachuted from the viewing platform of the torch of the
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
( above sea level and from the base of the statue), seemingly on a whim. On 6 February, ''La Croix'' added a footnote to the report on Reichelt's death: another parachuting experiment was to take place on 18 or 25 February at Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") in Viry-Châtillon (often misidentified as Juvisy-sur-Orge), in which the aviator Camille Guillaume planned to leap from his Blériot monoplane at a height of to test a parachute design (the plane would be allowed to crash). After Reichelt's death, authorities became wary of granting permission for any further parachute experiments using the Eiffel Tower. Though they continued to grant permissions for parachute dummy drops, some hopeful inventors – such as a man named Damblanc, who wished to try his "helicopter parachute" from the second platform – were refused permission to conduct tests, and even applications for aviation experiments not involving the tower came under renewed scrutiny. More recently, the tower has become the scene of a number of illicit
base jump BASE jumping () is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend to the ground. BASE is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antenna (radio), antenna ...
s. A Norwegian man died in 2005 after losing his canopy while attempting a promotional jump for a clothing firm – the first parachuting death at the tower since Reichelt. A sanctioned stunt jump for the 1985 James Bond film ''
A View to a Kill ''A View to a Kill'' is a 1985 spy film, the fourteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from ...
'' was successful. Reichelt came momentarily to prominence again in the 1940s in the United States, when his likeness was claimed as the model for one of the figures that were "strangely un-American in expression and garb" in the WPA-funded mural at Floyd Bennett Field in
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, New York.Gordon p. 99 In an incident reminiscent of the 1933 controversy over
Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...
's '' Man at the Crossroads'' mural at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...
, a furor erupted over an image depicting two minor
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aviators, supposedly flanking a central portrait of
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. The WPA already had an unwanted reputation as being sympathetic to the left, and despite the artist August Henkel's "glib" explanation of the "accidental" inclusion of a Soviet
red star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. ...
and his claim that the image identified as Stalin was actually of Reichelt, the murals were taken down and three of the four panels burned. The story of Reichelt's misadventure was also the subject of a 1993 French
short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
, , written and directed by Pablo Lopez Paredes and starring Bruce Myers in the title role. Although there were no viable parachuting solutions for use in aeroplanes when Reichelt began developing his suit, a patent for a packable parachute had been applied for by Gleb Kotelnikov.Kotelnikov was granted a patent in France in March 1912.


In popular culture

Reichelt's jump is retold in the novel ''Chasing the Black Eagle'' by Canadian author Bruce Geddes.


See also

*
List of inventors killed by their own inventions This is a list of people whose deaths were in some manner caused by or directly related to a product, process, procedure, or other technological innovation that they invented or designed. Ill-fated inventors Automotive * Sylvester H. Roper (1 ...
* List of unusual deaths in the 20th century * Wingsuit flying


Notes


References


Bibliography

* *


External links


British Pathé film of Reichelt's final jump
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichelt, Franz 1878 births 1912 deaths Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in France Aviation safety pioneers Filmed deaths from falls 19th-century French inventors Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to France Naturalized citizens of France Parachuting deaths French tailors Articles containing video clips Inventors killed by their own invention People from Litoměřice District German Bohemian people