Inventors Who Maybe Should’ve Read The Manual Of Their Own Invention That Ended Up Killing Them
Franz Reichelt
Also known as the “Flying Tailor”, Franz is best known for his daring stunts and being the Godfather of the parachute. He became 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 an aircraft.
He was granted a test jump by the Parisian police in 1912 to jump off of the Eiffel Tower. Despite his friends trying to get him to just use a dummy, he jumped from the first platform of the tower. His parachute failed to deploy and he fell to the icy ground and died.
