Franz Reichelt

Franz Reichelt was an Austrian-born French tailor and inventor who died in 1912 after jumping from the Eiffel Tower to test a wearable parachute of his design.

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Eiffel Tower parachute test: Franz Reichelt’s fatal 1912 jump from the Eiffel Tower while testing his wearable parachute. This test ended Reichelt’s life and became the central event associated with him.
Parachute: A device that increases drag to slow the descent of a person or object through the air. Reichelt’s suit attempted to use a canopy to slow a falling person.
Early aviation: The development of powered flight from the late nineteenth century through the early decades of the twentieth. Reichelt pursued a safety device when aircraft were new and emergency equipment was limited.
Risk compensation: A behavioral response in which people take greater risks when they feel protected by safety measures. Reichelt’s confidence in his invention raises questions about perceived protection during dangerous tests.
Eiffel Tower: A wrought-iron lattice tower in Paris, completed in 1889. Reichelt chose its first level as the launch point for his test.
Drag (physics): A force that resists an object's motion through a fluid such as air. A parachute must generate enough drag to counter a falling person's weight.
Louis-Sébastien Lenormand: A French inventor who demonstrated a parachute jump from a tower in 1783. His early parachute experiments predated Reichelt’s attempt by more than a century.
Experimental safety: Procedures and safeguards used to reduce harm during tests and experiments. The fatal jump illustrates the stakes of testing unproven equipment without effective safeguards.
Aéro-Club de France: A French organization founded in 1898 to promote aeronautics. Its permission enabled Reichelt to conduct his public test from the tower.
Terminal velocity: The constant speed a falling object reaches when drag balances its weight. The suit needed to reduce Reichelt’s descent speed before impact.