The Infamous Eiffel Tower Death Jump of 1912
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 30 мар 2020
- "Eiffel Tower Death Jump"
Franz Reichelt, an Austrian-born French inventor, made a living as a tailor while dedicating his free time to developing a flying parachute suit specifically designed for airplane pilots. During Reichelt's pursuit, airplanes were a relatively new invention, having been flown for the first time in Kitty Hawk in 1903. At that time, the mechanics of how a pilot could escape a damaged plane were still being refined. Initially, Reichelt conducted successful tests using dummies, which led him to bravely test the suit himself. In a daring act, he jumped off the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. Tragically, the 187-foot fall onto frozen ground resulted in his instant death.
Further reading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_R...
Original upload: March 31st, 2020
Footage from February 4th, 1912
Since the release of this video, a new and improved version of higher quality, with the correct aspect ratio, has been uploaded.
Updated upload: November 4th, 2023
Updated link: • Video
Copyright Disclaimer:
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 
Развлечения
![A Day To Remember: Feedback [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/iXVnysmQ4e0/mqdefault.jpg)
The long hesitation before the jump is one of the most agonizing things I’ve ever seen, knowing what is about to happen. 😩
Same. Except I didn't know the story, so while I kind of suspected....it was still a bit jolting to see; obviously and immediately hopeless.
Yeah that's tension that you can't produce with a script right there.
It's almost as if he was having second thoughts but felt he had to go ahead with it and while some find it funny, if it wasn't for men like him we'd still be sitting in caves wondering, what if?
@@secondchance6603 I had that same sensation. The second thoughts thing was real, and difficult to watch. Some of the devices people were trying in that era were kind of laughable by today's standards, and probably then as well, but you're right - their intense human curiosity is the same intense human curiosity that takes place when there is a success. We are all of us standing upon someone else's shoulders, and that includes a whole lot of people who tried and failed.
First, I thought he is going for a test jump into the Seine river before jumping from the tower. He better should have.
It's haunting to see how hard he was breathing before the fatal plunge. Can't belive he went for it
Wasn't breathing much after arriving at the ground... The Di*khead.
First base jump ever and it was recorded better than most failed jumps today. Camera man stayed right on target.
Up until about the 1970’s ‘most’ people who had access to video equipment were professionals who’d studied videography very hard and underwent extensive training.
Now, in today’s cheap ass, throw away society, well, every phone has a camera and not many know how to use them.
@@SeriousSchittoh boohoo
@@SeriousSchittI'm already happy when they record horizontally ;)
@@SxSxG666 Absolutely.
@@chopitup-cm8qiSure he was 🤪
I've read Franz's story and he was definitely a man of ambition, and in some ways strong headed in his refusal to accept that his invention would likely not work. It's disturbing and inspiring to see Franz hesitate as thoughts race trough his head and then summon up enough courage take the leap. Success might have brought local fame and maybe even monetary income, failure was almost certain death! It's in these moments that human nature is either viewed as intensely brave or incredibly foolish or perhaps both. Either way, at least Franz lived his story and his story lives.
E simples! Era ver um passarinho...ele tem asas...e pode voar, e nos humanos não fomos feitos com asas!!!
Its his hubris that caused his death in the end 😢
The fall only took 2 seconds. He was dead instantly. Sad, but a prime example of ego overpowering logic.
Raced through his head. Ambitious and strong-headed? Reminds me of that submersible.
@@oslopedroza6070 Você é um gênio da Tasmânia.
That thing didn't even look like it would almost work.
Unfortunately at the time he probably didn't know what he needed for it to work. Aeronautical knowledge was very primitive and as unfortunate as it is, his tests helped eliminate some bad designs. Sort of like Edison's thousands of attempts at a lightbulb, people made 100s of attempts at flying machines before the Wright Brothers had success
@@vitomarchino how about having at least some safety precautions lol
@@vitomarchino what about using dummy, instead of being one
@@vitomarchino could have tossed a dummy with the same weight to check it out
Now I totally agree I am not a scientist but I thought the same it looked like it wasn't gonna work period
Although this happened long ago, it still happened and took this man's life. I kniw this was an old film, but I silently still wished he would step back and not jump. May he rest in peace.
I love the spirit you have and shared with us. If your kind words for someone who died tragically and is 'long gone' have even effect, even on one single person, then maybe they'll somehow be able to share more 'heart' with ten others, and then them ten others each themselves.
look at it this way, everyone in that film is now dead. but at least ol' franz went out with a bang.
@@lil_old_man202even a parachute wouldn't have saved him, poor soul. 🙄🙄😭 Aug twenty three
Well said
He even "left his mark" in the world. And on it too! His mark in life was a good 9" maybe.@@lil_old_man202
The suit couldn't handle the weights of his balls
Such an original comment.
😮
For sure your balls must be way bigger than your brain.
No, it couldn’t handle the weight of the rock he had instead of a brain
Well said
According to Wikipedia (yes I know) he had a heart attack on the way down. He had tried throwing dummies off of a 5 story apartment building before this but the parachute never consistently worked. He made adjustments but never re-tested after changing the suit. Also apparently nobody knew he was going to jump himself until he showed up and told everyone he was going too. They had a contest to build a low altitude parachute at the time and other people were throwing dummies off of the Eiffel Tower trying to win it. Everyone tried to talk him out of it but pride got the best of him. Then they tried to talk him into wearing a safety rope so that he would be more or less bungee jumping off of it. He refused. It was also a very windy day unexpectedly to them at least so they tried to at least convince him to post pone until the next day. He refused to do that because he had already written the newspaper telling them that he had finally figured this out. Basically, he built an inconsistent suit that very unreliably worked. Then he made major alterations to said suit (more than doubled the span of the parachute among others), never bothered to test said new suit, told one of the largest cities in the world that it worked (again he never tested the new suit with even a dummy) went to the tallest structure in the world at the time, jumped off of it in front of a massive crowd with police crowd control in bad weather after everyone had told him not too, then bragged on himself in front of everyone on top of the tower, jumped and died. Progress comes at a cost I guess but pride and arrogance cost this guy his life...
not sure if i agree with your "pride and arrogance" explanation. He was simply driven and ambitious and wouldnt want to live life without trying to realise his dream. respect.
@@JustMe-vz3wdit was pride
@@ScoobyandShaggy5554definitely pride 💯
@@JustMe-vz3wd That is the most asinine justification for a man accientally killing himself out of pure hubris that i have ever seen.
It was absoutely pride. Stubborn, stupid pride. If he wasn't prideful and actually wanted to succeed, *he would've actually tested his suit properly.*
He wouldn'tve rejected using a safety rope, he would've used a dumby like everyone else instead of his own body.
This man's crowning achievement and the only thing anybody remembers his for, is this video of him accidentally killing himself. There's nothing here to respect, unless you wanna pay your respects to his grave.
Maybe they could have wrestled him to the ground and had him arrested on psychiatric grounds when if previous tests on dummies had failed he had no business in playing Russian roulette with his life in which metaphorically speaking 5 barrels of the revolver are loaded. I guess that was a case of taking liberte egalite fraternite a bit too far.
He probably realized before the jump that it wasn’t gonna work, but the pressure of all these people watching him forced him to do it. Hella sad tbh
I think he knew he was committing suicide
That’s exactly what I seen, he was thinking twice but the pressure was too much
it's not worth to waste your life for that.But at least he became the first man whose death to be filmed.
There should never be pressure so much as to cause you to commit suicide then that's basically making those people that were watching him bullies. I have an inkling he really thought that this was going to work I don't think he had any thought in his mind of killing himself.
He did have a parachute I think his hesitation might have been not initially fallen from that chair he was standing on along with the side rail.
Poor man may he continue to rest in peace🥀🕊️
But I have to say this is the very first time I see someone actually kill themselves or plummet to their death. 😣
Yeah, blame others for his stupidity
He simultaneously invented the wing suit, base jumping, and the Darwin Award.
Like that!😂
only the Darwin Award of 1912 was later atributed to him..
Lol!
@@fidelcatsro6948 The Darwin Award only came into being circa 1985 ish,officially beginning 1995 on the internet, I believe,but nothing like that in 1912 sir!
The guys measuring how deep his body sank into the soil were from the Guinness book of world records. Ironically, he still holds that record today.
Record of what? How deep your body can sink into the ground? I'm confused lol
Jokes aside, one moment of respect for this innovative and brave guy who dared to test his own invention.
No respect. He had already tested it with dummies and the results were clear: the wing suit didn’t work. But instead of trying to improve it before moving onto human testing, he made the dumbest decision ever.
Let's not glorify suicide
@@bort- We're not glorifying suicide, we're indicating stupidity.
Um, no.
@@devil95003May be he should have invented that in the first place
R.I.P. Franz Reichelt 🙏🏽
rest in pieces for sure
You can see him hesitating.
Sim
Yes
Si
He was fighting every ounce of instinct
I wish people would hesitate more often before getting on an airplane!! Safety is our number one priority > step onto this rocket! lol
@@robinhood1969phonykingssuck air travel is the safest mode of travel available today but k
@@rayhankazianga6817 if you look at the more important statistics about this topic air travel is only the 3rd safest after railway transport and buses.
the stats the mainstream presents to you are pretty much deluding. although true in some aspects (like deaths / distance traveled) not true in the more important ones about how you actually feel about it in most cases and what you actually want to know.
of course spending 30 min traveling by train is safer than 30 min traveling by an aircraft.
you cannot compare having 2 flights a year to your daily traveling routine. in that case planes are very safe. obviously.
This man was a tailor and his experiment was done about 100 years ago when a desire to experiment was more judicious than to approach it scientifically. Men like Franz Reichelt has paved the way to success after repeated failures. My heart goes out to his sincere effort.
You gotta admire his courage and dedication.
Not when coupled so closely to stupidity.
You also gotta admire morons that admire such morons.
I don’t think so. This was just stupid. Repeat it 12 times with dummies until it’s a 99% certainty before getting in yourself.
Stupidity is what he had and that is nothing to admire about.
I don’t get why you are getting disagreement comments. I agree, he tried so hard to do it and yet dumb enough to have the balls and confidence to do it trusting his own invention. Although it said it didn’t deploy, so maybe it did work
Everything in his being is telling him not to jump and that's why it took him so long to do it. How tragic. He should have listened to his gut.
@Guinevere But he'd be alive... What a shame to put Pride first.
@Guinevere avoiding to go into major depths of danger to please others should be an a priori thing. No one should be made fun of just because they value their own life than a simple show.
@Guinevere He'd only told people he was going to throw a dummy off. They wouldn't have allowed him up there if he'd admitted he was planning to throw himself off. So he didn't really have much to fear about his reputation - just throw the dummy as everybody was expecting.
Funny that y'all think social pressure isn't killing all of us off slowly or faster
He should've followed the second thoughts wholeheartedly, who cares about the backlash, you only get one life, they'll be alright, just ignore the bullies.
He shakes his head before he jumps, like he knew it wasn’t right. I wonder how scary that was, standing on a stool by the side of a building. Very sad :(
Where do you see him shaking his head ? I don’t see it.
1:15
He should've followed through with whatever hesitation he had and backed out, sure there would've been backlash and embarrassment but he still would've been alive!
He was probably thinking a nice riverbed or a giant mattress would’ve made much more sense before jumping
they say he was being told not to jump....he could have been shaking his head to That
Regardless of the horrible fate this man endured, his dedication and guts are beyond legendary
Stop romanticizing the dumbness and stubborness of those guys.
@@rafaelbianchi4115He was trying to make a parachute that worked better than the ones used at the time. This was something that other people didn’t know how to do. He needed a human to test it because a dummy didn’t weigh the same as a human.
@@Leo_Valdez haha
Yeah…..I have zero aeronautical training of any kind, but can tell there is zero probability this heavy, bulky , canvass looking monstrosity of a suit could possibly fly, or glide down …..zero chance that anything could happen except the invariable splat!@@Leo_Valdez
@@rafaelbianchi4115stop romanticizing ignorance. It was rarher pressure that prompted him so
Here’s an Austrian that also took a leap of faith, broke records, nearly died…. But succeeded! Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere on a balloon that was sponsored by Red Bull like 15 years ago. He basically jumped from the edge of outer space, lost control halfway but recovered and landed like a champ in New Mexico.
That was a pretty long way from the edge of space about 1/3 of the way and he had a huge team of engineers designing the whole thing. People did that in the 50s when high altitude baloons where popular.
Man, that was some leap!
Well, to be fair, the stratosphere is nowhere near the edge of space. It's around the exosphere.
Yes,I watched a footage of his performance on YT.I guess he did take a really huge risk but eventually he made it to landing safe and sound.
After this jump I guess he had enough of extreme performances and retired.Wise choice....
As kids we jumped out of Merkur and landed safely on planet Earth with just a t-shirt.
You know what that parachute suit needs?
A parachute.
Now we have gliding suits! These are the men who risk everything to advance the threshold of civilization, technology, and the overall catalog of scientific knowledge! I wish Franz were alive today to see how far his idea has evolved. Rest in peace, Franz!
I wonder if those gliding suits could’ve saved those that fell to their deaths on 9-11. I hope there’s a way to get them to be more accessible, and cheaper- especially for those that work in very tall buildings.
Franz was a mad person, he tested his invention with dummies and it didn’t work, and yet he chose to do the jump with the same suit in winter with far below optimal conditions. His idea and sentiment were great, his execution was just horrible
@@4thegloryofthelord I think providing a suit for every single person in a skyscraper isn't possible. Also, you would have to train them on how to use it, since without any training they would have probably flied into some building and crashed just like the plane that crashed into their building lol
My life for civilization? Nah!
Unfortunately for Franz, a man from the Soviet Union actually invented a working wearable parachute a year prior to this. His death was completely in vain.
wow, that was surprisingly tense. I didn't expect the actual footage!
That mustache alone should’ve given him a safer landing bless his heart.
Sad to see a man with such a mustache go like that
Yes
Yea it’s sad
But he did wear his peaky blinder!
@@chrisrattray8958 great show and a great comment
Yes, the man is not interesting... but his mustache... Yeah, what a reaction...
I don't think I've actually seen someone die on youtube before...
Look up Tommy Cooper.
Or Budd Dywer
Or jfk
@@SafeBurrito5465 i can't find that amymore
@@JMartinez351 if it’s not on RUclips try looking it up
This was interesting, never saw the footage before. Also, hello everybody else here because of Huggbees.
A man on the internet called me a chicken, so I had to prove him wrong XD
Also, based on this footage, I would estimate the hole to be 3 feet wide, and about 5 inches deep. However, this is likely inaccurate, since the French officially adopted the Meter in 1875, so that’s likely what they would be using to measure here.
I am a chicken
dude really thought this was the "i fall" tower
It was a long time in the past. It is now called the "i fell" tower
Fun Fact: This dude actually had a lot of advance warning before he took the leap, both from his friends and from experienced pilots at the time. He was so confident in his own work that he kept on going even after he jumped off a building with this thing and broke his own leg. He only hesitated right at the end.
He should hesitated a little further and not jumped off. But again we are in 2023. What he has on resembles more of a wingsuit that base jumpers use. . He should of jumped from the very top of the Eifel tower and then had an actual real parachute to save his life. Then he could of gaged how well it worked too bad.
@@elliothuh669I’m pretty sure what he had on was the closest thing there was to an “actual real parachute” in those times 🤣🤣
@@Myspicyshart they had real parachutes since the beginning of the 19th century
@@Myspicyshart lol 🤣🤣
@@Myspicyshart A dummy with a real working parachute was thrown off the eifel tower a year before this.
Though sadly all the people in this recording are long gone, you still have sadness knowing the pain his death brough upon his loved ones and friends. Seeing his last moments, you just wish he hadn't done it
Even the babies still in the uterus are gone
Wow. This comment makes me feel like crying. There are deaths in the thousands weekly but this death is really made dramatic by this comment.
speak for yourself, i wanted him to do a frontflip.
To put that into more perspective. There are only 50 or so people alive from 1912... Everyone else is dead.
A beautiful tribute to a very brave man. Thank you
I am gonna explain the whole story oversimplified. Franz Reichtelt was a tailor and inventor. What I have learned and understand is that this man was in an era where everyone wanted to fly. What Franz had created seemed to resemble an early wing suit that you see when you jump off a plane in a call of duty match. So unlike what people said in the newspapers and other media, he wasn’t necessarily a f##king idiot and was on to something. Early tests with dummies actually kind of worked because they weighed like 100 pounds and glided down. However because of a bet from some guy he had to make a more compact design. The entire design was to make sure that when shitty planes would break down a man could jump out and glide safely with “wings”. However due to the terrible materials and it literally not working he got frustrated. Something snapped and realized that throwing plastic dummies out of a window was a problem when they weren’t working and breaking on impact. Duh he should throw himself instead, so he did it at one point and survived after falling from like 30 feet. Not because his invention worked, but because he landed on straw. He tried again a second time and broke his leg. Then he realized “wait a minute, I’m not falling from high enough place” and decided to jump from the Eiffel Tower. However the French government denies him, for a whole year he tries to convince the government to let him until finally they let out a big sign and say “fine you can off ur self”He gathered friends and other people to film him, people gathered to see the event, police held people back. The police thought he was just gonna throw dummies but instead was gonna throw himself. While after his death the police claimed they would have stopped him if he was gonna say that he was gonna jump off and not a dummy. He actually states to everyone that he will in fact, jump off. When he is going up the tower a security guard stops him because this is obviously stupid, but eventually lets him go. When he is at the top he does a wind test and yeets paper to see if the wind is blowing which it in fact is. Then he finally after a minute of having his life flash in front of his life, jumps 187 feet off the tower. Many things happen that aren’t immediately shown on film. First off, the wind, bad wind helped kill him. Second, the suit itself, the suit did not deploy properly and instead folded him like a blanket of death. Third, a subject not brought up often is the temperature. It was in February and therefore still winter, this made the soil harder than concrete. If it was in a different season he could have maybe just maybe survived. This can be proven because in the year 1964, a woman fell off the tower at a similar height and landed on a car. She survived. When Franz landed he fell so hard it created a crater in the ground. Even with all of this being all said and done it’s possible he suffered a heart attack while falling, however it happened so quick that the heart attack didn’t have time to kill him. The saddest part is that it was all in vain, a dude LITERALLY a year earlier invented the parachute that worked.
I know the writing is a little bit messy but the point is that this story was f##ked up and really depressing and disturbing. This man tried creating something that was already a failure and went to extremes. However even though he was treated as a madman he wasn’t entirely wrong. The wing suit is a concept that literally exists and works, it’s just he didn’t have the materials and knowledge on how to properly create it. He stuck to his dream to the very end. I hope this awful massive paragraph helps you understand the event more and on its backstory, Rip Franz, ur an Angel now. 😔😢
Fun Fact or sad fact The Death of Franz Reichelt was the first recorded EXISTING recorded death. What that means is that it’s the first recorded death of film that still exists. The actual first recorded death was some guy being hung in a public execution in 1897. However because 10 minutes of footage is a lot and film preservation technology wasn’t exactly the best at the time the film is lost to history. Photos from the film exist to prove it actually happened, but the film itself is lost to time. I forgot the name of the guy who was being executed, he like killed children or something, so just Google that instead.
These comments are really funny but this is also kinda sad. Imagine how scared he must have been when he realized it wasn't going to work.
It probably was thankfully brief at least. RIP
i do kinda feel a little sad.
That being said, he didn’t have to do it.
lmao
@OWEN GLATCZAK now all I can think about is him saying "bruh" right before he hits the ground😭
@@Alexa-xl1gi 😂😂😂😂
I read this story today;
Here to add a little bit of context:
- he tried a lighter version of the "parachute" with dummies, and worked.
- he tried an heavier, more complex version of it to be used with humans and never worked at first. The structure weighted over 70 kg.
- he made it lighter and tried again with dummies. It is reported that only in a single case the dummy did not crash the ground.
- he tried himself from a barn. He crashed on a hay cove, breaking maybe a leg. But safe. He saw that he need more air time to manouver the parachute, so he thought he needed to jump from higher.
- the day he jumped from the tower was 0°, freezing chill at 730 in the morning. Literally everybody there tried to dissuade him from jumping. The tower guardian was even trying to close the gate.
- the police expected he should throw a dummy, not a real person down the tower.
- he looks scared, and in fact probably he was. The autopsy stated that he died from heart attach before touching ground.
- as someone in the comments pointed out, all the people related to this sad episode died, but his memory is still somehow remembered.
My personal thought: feel very sad for him. Watching a man dying on YT is kinda creepy. History will remember you both if you fail miserably or succeed terrifically. Us to decide the price we are willing to pay. I believe the poor Franz, in the end, was aware of his end but agreed to pay the tool for his memory.
where did you get the info about a heart attack? I can't find anything to verify that.
it's very rare for someone falling to die of a heart attack before they hit the ground. in this case there is not really enough time to have a heart attack or even die from asphyxiation
@@elpollodelamuerte2550 "Édouard Launet, writing in the Summer supplement of Libération in 2009, mentioned that an autopsy concluded that Reichelt had died of a heart attack during his fall." from wikipedia but also google "Franz Reichelt heart attack" for more info
@@wallride2wallride yeah, an autopsy from a 100+ years ago vs a 5second heart attack. i wonder what's the tright track here
@@hazardeur idk, I just reported the info I have without any endorsement.
That’s even sadder to think he had a heart attack before crashing to the ground. Does that mean he died midair, since the fall would have killed him instantly?
One of the original Darwin Award recipients.
Great quality footage considering the time.
When you skip the tutorial in a video game
Kkkkk
Frr
Lol 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Imagine joking about someone's death
I did that with a blanket as a cape when I was a kid. But of course, the shed roof was only like 7 feet high.
I still believe it will work
Rest in peace Franz - so much honor and bravery, he had such impressive belief in his work 🕊️
That's the trouble with beliefs.
He's was probably reincarnated years ago and passed by now.
File that under:
"Seemed like a good idea at the time "...
As a fellow Austrian I can confirm: we are good tailors, good inventors, and are very stubborn!
please don't talk for me, my fellow austrian
good ish inventors :D
But not good at making parachutes.
@@jamesmacleod671 Haha! True. 😂 But I hope his death at least contributed somehow to the funtioning parachutes...
I wouldn't mind a tailor-made Austrian suit.
0:21 he looked so happy to demonstrate his lil invention bro😭💔
Thanks for sharing, I didnt know his death jump was filmed.
Out among the stars I sail
Way beyond the moon
In my silver ship I sail
A dream that ended too soon
Now I know
Exactly who I am
And what I'm here for
And I will go sailing no more
All the things I thought I'd be
All the brave things I'd done
Vanished like a snowflake
With the rising of the sun
Nevermore to sail my ship
Where no man has gone before
And I will go sailing no more
But, no -
It can't be true!
I could fly if I wanted to!
Like a bird in the sky
If I believed I could fly
Well, I'd fly!
Clearly, I
Will go sailing no more
He knew he was going to die, but his statement before climbing up prevented him from backing down. Ego killed that man.
Same with the Titan.
i’m here cause i had to see what mr ballen was talking about.
no lie that he really rocked him self back and forth before jumping. oof
Same
I knew about it before hand but I never knew the full story until Mr Ballen’s video.
Same
Mr.Ballen fan too!
Same
I remember seeing this live on tv when i was a kid. I couldnt sleep well for many nights.
The accompanying music is appropriately sad and eerie......
Not even a landing pad or any means of cushioning the fall...just straight to the turf...and then come along these guys to measure his indentation 🥴
@Reehan Baitali That was the police statement made to cover their own asses.
@@kr00k3d100 why should the police be held accountable 🤦♀️
Not gonna lie, the song in the background is kinda terrifying considering the video it’s played over. It’d probably be scary to me even if it wasn’t played over this.
wdym its so relaxing
@@cryoman4144 idk it’s just music from the early 1900’s kinda freak me out.
@@sweatyoldman kinda weird
i find this song very beautiful and etherial
i mean the title is "Songs my mother taught me" so that might make you not fear the song as much
@@cryoman4144 Idk maybe.
@Marty mcfly idk it just is, why wouldnt it be relaxing? it siunds so good and calm
His legacy lives on as he made quite an impact in the sport of BASE jumping.
And on the ground.
Yeah that's already been stated several times already in the comments here. Thanks for putting base in all caps since we're all too stupid to have had this obvious thought ourselves, or to have read the other comments.
Julie's a little upset, no worries
Flying suits exist now and they work. Respect to the pionneers.
One of the many who died so we can enjoy flying and taking it for granted. Rest in peace, Franz.
How so? It was a completely pointless death. Parachutes were invented well before and worked reliably too.
@@thesnackbandit It evolved into wingsuits and better understanding of aerodynamics.
@@LouLope It didn’t. He didn’t have to die for this. Even his tests with dummies were unreliable. Of course it is a tragedy that he went through with it, but it’s not like his demise paved the way for wingsuits or anything.
no, not at all actually..
He was not that guy
Stop
Part of the problem also was he jumped vertically. You can see him hesitate then jump off but it looks like he meant to jump horizontally hence so the wind would catch under his suit
Yeah, either way his suit would've been torn apart because of the wind
Yeaaaaah..... the wind failed him.....
but at least he should have put a soft material on the ground, better being injured than dead
Not sure th what would have been the difference
That still wouldn't of worked the suit was basically just a big ass coat if he would of done it like the flying suits we have now probably could of glided down
The depth of the crater made from the impact was a world record back then
It was either a guinness record of highest jump or deepest hole
You can see how he knew this would be his last. The hesitation :(
he literally didnt though? he was overconfident and believed in his own creation, he was just unsure of a few things. he obviously wasnt expecting that he'd fall to his death instead
110 years later people are using similar suits to jump of the mountain cliffs many times higher than Eiffel tower and they make it safely to the ground... If he only be able to see them.
Some of them are up there with him.
Imagine, if that test would have been a success, he would have been the respected inventor of the wingsuit.
@@dougkenny6548 sure but not because of that
@@juliebraden6911 like I said, some of the people who choose to risk their lives flying wingsuits, base jumping etc. lose them. I guess they don't count because they didn't jump off the Eiffel Tower?
They ALL have parachutes they deploy 2000 AGl
Yes he died in 1912 but also jumped to eternity, he will be with us forever.
This was the first ever death recorded on video.
The comments are kinda funny but I actually feel bad for this guy, he looked super scared. Rip Franz
Something that i couldn’t help but notice was his breathing.
It was 0°c that morning, and you can see vapour coming from his breathe pretty much the entire time.
Right up until about 5-10 seconds before his jump.
The vapour stops.
He literally held his breathe, and took a leap of faith.
My heart goes out to this man, may he forever be at peace.
I thought that, too: his last breaths.
Agreed.
Well observed - I had noticed the fast breathing but not that it stopped.
he should have waited til summertime. at least then he could have taken advantage of favorable warm upward drafts.
Agreed. He was very brave. RIP 🙏.
I wonder if his wing suit is in a museum some where.
This was before the theory of "Fuck around and find out".
Not in a million years would I do this, even if I new the parachute was 100% guaranteed not to fail. That parachute looks like a bleeding quilt. He hesitates and then jumps rather badly. It's hard to watch.
lol a quilt or inflatable tent
It almost made me cry cuz the man was just standing in the camera innocently, ready to show his work. Little did he know he was causing his fate.
And still a dummy was the last person to try
Crazy part is he was booked to ride the Titanic to NYC later in the year so he was screwed anyway.
That's nuts
He chose the better way to go.
What’s your source for that? I can’t find any mention of it anywhere online.
Did you just make it up?
This is made up there’s no such evidence supporting these theorey
@@andrewrobinson8305 He probably did to get LIKES! Our generation live and breathe LIKES!
I gotta admire a man who stuck with his dream to the end. Its so sad that it had to end that way ;(
a dream or a lunatic fantasy?
I’m sure his family echoed those sentiments
@@manuelkong10
If you are a woke progressive, you can't tell the difference.
I wonder what went through his mind when he hit the ground? Probably his ass.
Stuck to his dream and then to the ground.
I read the text. I read the video title. I'm watching him stand on the edge. And I'm thinking "Don't do it!".
You gotta be proud of this man. His innovation would eventually lead to the Wingsuits that are used today.
The impact he made on the ground is crazy to me
He was completely obliterated.
@@S10Blazen Doesn't look completely obliterated at 1:52
Wow thats such an .... original joke.
Yeah Probably because the ground was freezing cold.
that's because it's from a movie,but the Internet was real@@tappajaav
Remember kids, if you're going to do something that may result in your death, don't film it on camera, because 110 years later someone may end up posting this comment.
The strength of his conviction even unto death is a testament to his unwavering belief that this would work. Brave.
His confidence at a good outcome seems like an eerie foreshadowing. The world was at peace in 1912, but just two years later Europe itself would plunge headlong to its doom.
Been recently to Paris 1 week vacation. Went to the Eiffel tower to the top. Great experience.
I've seen this video before and was amazed how high was the 1st level of the tower. It's bone chilling.
187 feet
1st level of the tower was where he jumped from? Is the crater on the ground still there?
@@fidelcatsro6948i don't think it's still there since they probably covered it tho I've never been to Paris so idk
@@Hanz13171 yeah i think so too..its probably gone by now
I went up in the Tower late April 23. People tend to underestimate how high it is. It was the tallest structure in the entire world until the Chrysler building was built in NYC which barely eclipsed it by mere feet. So that jump from the first level was a major leap for sure .
even watching now nearly 110 years later, i'm thinking..noooo don't do it.
FUN FACT: And after 2 months and 10 days, TITANIC SINK
Insane! I'm guessing he was the only one surprised by the outcome.
Legend has it that his cousin, Pierre Bungèe, invented a retracting rope shortly after he witnessed this event.
Underrated comment 👍
Seriously underrated.@@seaweed_pervert
Great comment. There's just so much to work with here. Thought about your comment more after posting the first part of my reply and laughed so hard I was crying.
he had incredible courage...it was people like him who pushed progress forward.
more like downward.
It's not courage, it's madness. Inventors who push progress forward stay alive to perfect their inventions.
He could have used a dummy, especially as it seemed that everyone but him knew that his invention had no chance of working...
@@luc5798 ....easy to say that today, at that time it was not so obvious.
@@luc5798 LoL....He did kinda use a dummy, if you think about it.
@@gandigooglegandigoogle7202 As I said, everyone but him knew that his invention had no chance of working... It seems that everyone warned him!
That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
I am grateful for his sacrifice for the future of parachute safety, but i feel bad for the fear he must have felt
Two days before what happened in the video, Frederick R. Law jumped from the Statue of Liberty with a parachute and succeeded, so Reichelt's death was completely unnecessary.
He didnt sacrifice himself for anything. He died because of his own ignorance and stupidity. He had all the warning signs in the world that told him that this would never work. He broke both his legs while trying the suit once. The stupid man is being credited as a hero who sacrificed himself for science, but in reality he had way to much confidence in himself. That stupid idiot.
What are you talking about? The parachute was invented and worked reliably well before this.
The post mortem showed that he had a heart attack on the way down.
@@MrPotatoBoiii and seeing as he was supposed to just use the “dummies” and decided to be the practice dummy himself…..id have to agree very unnecessary
0:58 that guy on the right '' i dont think you should try that''
The original: "I don't always test my code, but when I do, I do it in production"
He was a pioneer, sad to see it end that way
This man was the definition of balls. He had the courage and an intense belief in himself and his work to do something very dangerous all in the name of innovation and creation. He should be applauded.
Only idiots would applaud other idiots.
@@andredeketeleastutecomplex this man was working on something that would've potentially saved lives. Go fuck yourself
@@anthonycampos8057 true mate
@@anthonycampos8057 We saw how he helped himself. Not practical.
You don't see ducks lining up and climbing on the Eiffel tower to jump off.
Eye witness accounts of the time state that there were buzzards perched in the Eiffel tower girders cheering him on, and he felt compelled to make the jump, despite second thoughts.....
Thats sad
Keep in mind, he died in mid air from a heart attack. You're watching a corpse hit the ground.
Hmm I doubt that. Not much time to die in free fall
My grandfather was 13 when this happened. Its sad to see a man throw his life away like this! 😢
His fields of study weren't physics or aerodinamics, everyone told him to not do it but he still did it, a foolish man, but a very good one.
He literally flattened like you see in movies that is bone chilling
That's the power of positive thinking.
he didn't jump properly, he kind of just dead dropped, no pun intended... evident by the fact that he landed feet first when his invention was supposed to be something like a sugar glider's wings...
Quem veio?!?! Entrevista com Gabriel Lott Campeão Mundial de Wingsuit | The Noite (16/03/21) tmj
eu
Eu kkkk
Opa
Unbelievable stupidity. The bit at the end when the onlookers are measuring the dent he left in the ground. Shocking.
Absolutely horrific
Ahhh,the perfect musical accompaniment to any Eiffel Tower jump
He knew it would fail before he jumped but that inner drive to keep going despite the dangers took him over the edge
Over the Edge reminds me of another incident
@@User-be4fx did it involve a submarine made from Carbon Fibre going down very dangerous depths to see a sunken ship by any chance.
Oh you spoke to him before the jump
@@daveericson8447 oh he changed his mind and didnt jump
@@jamesmacleod671 Nope it involved a pro wrestler named Owen Hart, search the incident up.
Para chegarmos até os dias atuais com tanta tecnologia quantos erros aconteceram inclusive fatais como esse,toda a minha admiração a pessoas que apesar de cometerem erros trouxeram contribuição para a humanidade futura .
👏👏👏
☝🏾
💯
I wonder if he had patented that suit?
English- "To get to the present day with so much technology, how many mistakes have happened, including fatal ones like this one, all my admiration to people who, despite making mistakes, have contributed to future humanity."
Poor man. If the fall hadn’t killed him outright, being carried away like that afterwards surely would have. Saying that, he would likely have perished in the coming maelstrom of WW1 which was only two years away then.