In 1910, aviation fever gripped much of the world. In 1903, the American Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, became the first to successfully build and fly an aircraft.
Seven years later, aircraft were being constructed around the world. These early aircraft were flimsy contraptions of wood and canvas. Few were reliable. Many crashed, often killing their pilots.
Early aviators were widely regarded as more than a little crazy, but spectators flocked to the first air displays. One of the first such events in Britain was the International Aviation Meeting in Bournemouth, England.
Held in July, this event attracted aviators from Britain and Europe to compete for large cash prizes.
One of the most experienced British aviators was Charles Rolls, who co-founded Rolls-Royce with Henry Royce. Rolls had become only the second British person to fly in 1908.
Two years later, he became the first man to make a non-stop double airborne crossing of the English Channel.
At the meeting in Bournemouth, Rolls was widely expected to compete for the main prizes. Instead, he became the first British person to die in an aviation accident.
Watched by hundreds of spectators, Rolls was thrown from his aircraft and plunged to the ground.
This horrifying accident was far from unique. Many aviators died when they fell from their aircraft – seat belts were rare. What was needed was some way of allowing a flyer to safely survive falling from an aircraft.
One enterprising tailor believed that he had the answer…
Early Life
Franz Karl Reichelt was born in 1878 in the town of Wegstädtl, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We don’t know much about his early life, but in 1898 he moved to Paris.
In 1909, he was granted French citizenship and took the name Henry François Reichelt.
Reichelt was an experienced tailor, and he started a successful dressmaking business in Paris. Most of his customers were Austro-Hungarians visiting the French capital.
His customers soon became aware that Reichelt had a hobby that was rapidly becoming an obsession.
Reichelt was fascinated by early aviation but horrified by fatalities. Many, he believed, could have been avoided if the pilots involved had parachutes. He believed that he had the answer.
Early Parachutes
The first practical parachutes were invented in the 17th century. A man named Fausto Veranzio was said to be the first to successfully make a parachute jump in 1617.
Basing its design on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, Veranzio survived a jump from a tall building in Venice.
Other designs followed, but by the early 20th century, parachutes were bulky and heavy items. They simply weren’t suitable for use by the pilots of early aircraft.
Spurred by accidents such as the death of Rolls, in 1910 the Aéro-Club de France offered a substantial prize.
They offered 10,000 francs (worth $150,000 today) to anyone who could build a parachute that weighed less than 25 kilograms.
Such a parachute could be worn by pilots and would allow them to safely descend from a disabled aircraft. Franz Reichelt was one of those who aspired to win this prize.
The Parachute Suit
Reichelt’s approach was different and radical. In 1911, an American pilot made the first successful parachute jump from an aircraft in flight. But the parachute was so large that he had to hold it in his arms as he jumped!
Obviously, that wasn’t a viable or safe system. Some people worked on making smaller, “knapsack” styler parachutes. Reichelt intended to use his skills as a tailor to make something completely different – a parachute suit.
This would be a replacement for the coveralls that most pilots wore.
The suit, made from silk and waterproof fabric, would include a system of rods and belts. In the air, these would deploy to create a form of wing that would allow the wearer to descend safely.
At least, that was the theory…
In 1910, Reichelt produced several prototypes of the parachute suit.
He tested them by dressing a dummy in the suit and dropping it from the roof of a building. In each case, the dummy plunged to the ground with no appreciable loss of speed.
Reichelt wasn’t perturbed. The problem, he said, was that the suit needed additional height to deploy properly. Dropping it from a height of 25m (75 feet) just wasn’t a fair test.
Instead, he believed that it needed to be dropped from at least 60m (200 feet). In that case, the suit would open fully, and the wearer would drift slowly to the ground.
Reichelt even tested the suit himself. He jumped off a building wearing the suit. It failed to deploy and he broke his leg. Not a problem, he said, it just needs more height to work properly.
Reichelt was determined to try a new test, one that would win him the 10,000 franc prize. It had to be public to draw attention to his invention. It had to be done from at least 200 feet off the ground to ensure that the suit would work.
Reichelt believed he had the answer. He would jump off the Eiffel Tower and sail to the ground in front of an astonished crowd.
He approached the Paris police and asked for permission. They refused. He asked again. They refused again.
Finally, in early 1912, he was given permission to carry out his audacious experiment.
The Jump
At around 7:00am on a cold and blustery day in early February 1912, Reichelt arrived at the Eiffel tower.
His friends (and perhaps the police too) seem to have assumed that he would test the suit using a dummy. Instead, when he arrived, he was proudly wearing his parachute suit.
Several newspapers had been informed, and many had sent reporters and photographers to cover the event. Two cinematographers were also present. One would stand next to Reichelt on the tower to film the jump, while the other filmed from below.
After showing the bulky suit to photographers and the cameraman on the ground, Reichelt ascended to the first platform. He was 200 feet above the ground. Police cleared the area below.
Several of Reichelt’s friends tried to talk him out of the jump. It was too windy, they said. Why not use a dummy for the first test?
He laughed off their concerns.
An experienced parachutist told him that 200 feet was not sufficient for the device to deploy. Reichelt ignored this advice, telling those watching that he would demonstrate how effective the parachute suit was.
He placed a small stool precariously on top of a table next to the handrail. He climbed on top and extended the bat-like wings of the suit. For forty seconds, as the newsreel camera rolled, he stood, peering at the ground far below.
People began to wonder if he would really jump. Then, he turned back to those watching. He said “À bientôt” (see you soon) and stepped off the edge.
The camera on the ground filmed what happened next. Reichelt plummeted straight down, with the suit failing to slow his descent at all. He smashed into the frozen grass below the tower.
He hit the ground in an upright position, leaving a six-inch deep hole in the ground. One leg and one arm were smashed, his back was broken, and his skull was crushed.
By the time the first bystanders arrived moments later, Franz Reichelt was already dead.
Aftermath
Newsreel footage and press photographs of Franz Reichelt’s fatal jump were publicized around the world. His on-screen death caused outrage and horror.
Most people wrote off Franz Reichelt as just another eccentric and misguided aviation pioneer.
The Paric police were criticized for allowing the jump to go ahead. They claimed that Reichelt had told them that he planned to use a dummy in the test. When he arrived wearing the suit, they were taken by surprise.
Ironically, it would later become known that, in 1911, a Russian inventor had already designed and tested a small parachute.
The notion of a parachute suit was dropped, and instead, small backpack parachutes became common. Many pilots and crew would use these to escape from aircraft.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that Reichelt’s odd idea was resurrected. Wingsuits, bat-like wings made from nylon, are used to construct a deployable flying suit.
Intrepid jumpers using wingsuits have made safe descents from mountains, cliffs, and even tall buildings.
In retrospect, we can see that Franz Reichelt wasn’t quite as crazy as he seemed in 1912. His parachute suit was very similar to a modern wingsuit. All it lacked were modern, lightweight materials to make it viable.
Franz Reichelt was actually ahead of his time in designing his parachute suit.
However, he was also more than a little incautions in testing it by jumping off the Eiffel Tower. Further tests with dummies might have refined the design to the point where it might have worked.
Instead, the inventor and his novel idea died on the frozen grass beneath Paris’ most iconic landmark. Franz Reichelt was a true aviation pioneer. And he came closer to success than anyone realized at the time of his death.
Sources
https://allthatsinteresting.com/franz-reichelt
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flying-tailor-eiffel-paris-france-parachute
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