The tailor Franz Reichelt, who worked in the Opéra district of Paris, had an ambitious dream: to invent an aviator’s suit capable of transforming into a parachute in case of a fall. At a time when aviation was still in its infancy, his idea seemed revolutionary.
On February 4, 1912, he received permission to test his invention from the first level of the Eiffel Tower, about 57 meters above the ground. In front of a small crowd of curious onlookers and journalists, Reichelt ultimately decided to perform the experiment himself.
He leapt into the void… but the suit failed to deploy as intended. Within seconds, the inventor crashed at the foot of the monument, his device wrapped around him.
This tragic jump remains one of the most striking—and dramatic—episodes in the early history of aviation and human experimentation.
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