1. Franz Reichelt, known as Frantz Reichelt or Francois Reichelt, 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.
Franz Reichelt 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.
Franz Reichelt was born on 16 October 1878 in Wegstadtl, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, and moved to Paris, France, in 1898.
Franz Reichelt obtained French nationality in 1909, adopting the first name Francois.
Franz Reichelt took an apartment on the third floor at 8 rue Gaillon near the Avenue de l'Opera from 1907 and opened what was to become a successful dressmaking business, catering mostly to Austrians on trips to Paris.
From July 1910, Franz Reichelt began to develop a "parachute-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 Franz Reichelt hoped would be a practical and efficient parachute.
Franz Reichelt seems to have become interested in parachute design after hearing some of the stories of fatal accidents among the early aeronauts and aviators.
Franz Reichelt presented his design to the leading aeronautic organization, La Ligue Aerienne at the Aero-Club de France, 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.
Franz Reichelt nevertheless persevered and conducted experimental drops with dummies from the courtyard of his building at rue Gaillon.
Franz Reichelt refined his design, reducing the weight while increasing the surface area of the material until it reached 12 square metres.
L'Ouest-Eclair reported in 1911 that Franz Reichelt had personally jumped from a height of 8 to 10 metres at Joinville; the attempt failed but a pile of straw helped him escape injury.
Le Petit Journal suggested that Franz Reichelt made at least two apparently inconclusive tests with dummies from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower 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.
Franz 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.
Franz 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.
L'Action Francaise reported that Franz Reichelt stated the surface area of the final design to be 30 square metres with a canopy height of 5 metres, while Le Figaro judged the surface area might have reached 32 square metres.
From his arrival at the tower Franz Reichelt made it clear that he intended to jump himself.
Franz Reichelt's friends tried to persuade him to use dummies in the experiment, assuring him that he would have other opportunities to make the jump himself.
Hervieu, who was present to witness the demonstration, attempted to dissuade Franz Reichelt from making the jump.
Franz Reichelt was concerned that the parachute needed longer to fully open than the few seconds the drop from the first platform would allow, and he presented other technical objections to which Reichelt could not provide a satisfactory response.
Franz Reichelt 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 Amelie before being returned to his home in rue Gaillon.
Edouard Launet, writing in the Summer supplement of Liberation in 2009, mentioned that an autopsy concluded that Franz Reichelt had died of a heart attack during his fall.
Franz Reichelt's death was the first to result from a parachuting accident since Charles Leroux died giving a demonstration in Tallinn in 1889.
Franz 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 Brooklyn, New York.
Franz Reichelt's jump is retold in the novel Chasing the Black Eagle by Canadian author Bruce Geddes.