JAN 4, 1912: Reckless inventor Franz Reichelt was filmed jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower after testing the world’s first parachute suit on this day in 1912. The 33-year-old Austrian-born ...

Franz Reichelt—AKA “The Flying Tailor”—was an Austrian-born tailor living in France during the early 1900s, and is credited with pioneering an entirely wearable parachute suit that looked less like a ...

Franz Reichelt, the Flying Taylor, leapt from the Eiffel Tower on February 4, 1912, expecting his homemade parachute to do its job. Nobody actually thought he would jump. To secure deck access, ...