If you're in the mood for a story about someone SURVIVING a fall with a non-functional parachute, may I recommend my video on Victoria Cilliers, who did just that in 2015: ua-cam.com/video/t-Losn-FiEs/v-deo.html
I think the fact that he had a heart attack on the way down gives us some insight into how quickly he realized how badly this was going to end. Yikes, poor fellow.
It's like he realized as soon as he jumped that his parachute would not save his life but would rather extend his death, at which point his heart suffered a shock-induced heart attack. If that knocked him out, it would've been a mercy, but if it didn't, then for a few seconds he would've been in both mental AND physical pain before he hit the ground and abruptly ceased to be.
That and the fact that he didn't have someone at the base of the tower with a Wet-vac to clean up his mess, which is technically littering...which is a fine and possible jail time...I'd have a heart attack to if I realized that on the way down...fines are expensive and jail time is unpleasant.
Very objective and fact based channel. However doesn't stop me from calling the guy what he was: a moron. We meet people all the time in life who have inflated opinions of their intelligence and are incapable of listening to others. They are almost universally disliked, but apparently when their stupidity ends in their death, we must now treat them with respect. An odd human superstition. You may keep it.
It's important to understand the context behind Reichelt's actions in order to fully understand his reasoning. Paris during the Belle Epoque/Edwardian era was a magnet for all sorts of inventors, pioneers and cranks. If you wanted to make a name for yourself then Paris was the place to be and there'd be no shortage of people to encourage you. There's little wonder he felt so confident.
Given the recent build of thr Eiffel Tower, I could surmise as much, but his inability to see that there could be any defects to his inventiom was the definition of stubborn. He should've at least had something to brace his fall. Especially as he must've been rather scared and had a heart attack on the way down (probably in the milliseconds it took to realize his parachute suit didn't work).
Considering the time and place, if Reichelt hadn't jumped, someone else probably would have. It feels like one of those nearly inevitable historical moments, especially considering the push at the time to succeed in inventing a practical parachute.
My great grandmother from my dad's side, and my grandmother from my mother's side, were both rescued from death by their respective older sisters, who were killed in the act of those rescues. If either of those extremely unlikely events hadn't occurred, my entire family line would not exist. Reichelt's death could indeed have not only prevented the demise of some other random inventor, but also all the good that then came from that person's survival. We'll never know.
it's rare to see deaths on film at all. the only thing I can think of is when they show some disaster and you know that people are being killed, but you never actually see the people
I think this is a great example of the sunk cost fallacy as well. People everywhere telling him not to continue and him literally breaking bones but this was the one thing he’s worked on for years so it’ll work if I get a chance in Paris.
Reichelt was also incredibly passionate about *safety* and protecting the people who would, hypothetically, use his inventions. A huge motivating factor in his work to design a parachute suit was his desire to create a piece of safety equipment that would protect people’s lives. I deeply respect his desire to do good and his ingenuity, even though he ended up dying due to his invention.
Since this story is so depressing, I'd like to imagine an alternate universe version where his parachute also fails but he was able to glide to safety using his magnificent mustache, Dumbo the elephant style. This then start a new age of mustache-powered aviation.
@@rainey1987 The idea of a multiverse where anything and everything happens is preposterous. It doesn’t account for realism and the laws of the universe
@@Fighter4Street Rien ne permet d'affirmer qu'il est mort d'une crise cardiaque. On a seulement constaté son décès, rien de plus car aucune autopsie n'a été réalisée.
knowing what NOT to do, and the consequences of doing it, is probably even more important than knowing how to do it. This wouldn't have become such a significant lesson if he hadn't made it so... dramatic. At least he died for something.
And yet, there are SO many Jurassic Park movies... But no, you're right. Learning what DOESN'T work is very much part of the scientific process. It's always a shame when it comes at a high cost, but it wasn't meaningless. And his heart was in the right place: parachutes are valuable to air travel.
lol yeah, if you know what to do and still screw it up then it's a somewhat smaller(comparatively) lesson than NOT knowing what to do and screwing it up. screwing it up as you did NOT know what to do means A LOT has to be learned and set in stone
I guess....however, I do get the sense from this vid that thee was some kind of race to find or develop a parachute type device for the nascent air travel mode......that being said, I don't he was responsible for bringing this to the forefront or anyone used his "design" to further parachuting.....perhaps others considered how to make one less cumbersome and looked briefly at what this guy was pushing, but knew full well that you definitely needed far more surface area of a chute in order to slow its descent......anyway, I don't think we can call this man the father of the parachute or casualty of its future development...
Your documentaries are so well researched, scripted, and produced. I look forward every Tuesday to watching them. Thank you for sharing your dedication and sharing these with us.
I gotta give him a 10 out of 10 for effort. He cared about whom would use his invention, did his research and was confident enough in the product to demonstrate it himself. Really you can't ask for a better inventor. It makes it all the more tragic. But his death isn't in vain because it did save some lives im sure there is at least one person who believed his idea would work and maybe even didn't know him but has a similar idea and abandoned the idea due to the tragedy. He didn't show us what worked that day but he did show us what DIDN'T work. That ultimately made others tweak their designs.
@@mattmc5069 Sadly, while he could surely construct the suit he didn't design it based on testing prototypes or perhaps variants. Imagine what he'd have improved had he learned from the tower with a 'dummy'. One could say he tried too hard. He was pushing the envelope as were all the others. Then we now have wing suits, but I can't imagine how one would land, esp if not trained to do so. Hmm ..
It's enlightening to hear the details that led up to the jump. When you first hear about the story, you get this impression that no one tried to stop him or that no one cared about safety back then, but this video shows that wasn't entirely true.
He certainly should have had confidence in his invention, that is confidence it was not safe. He sure had guts and most likely helped other inventors learn from his mistake.
yes, the failure could be a learning opportunity. But it's only a learning opportunity if you don't make yourself the guinea pig. The mannequin can also give a good 'wat if' scenerio. Such as, 'what if the pilot was injured, or somehow otherwise incompacitated, can they still safely get down?'
@@zombiedoggie2732 Actually, you CAN be the guinea pig and still gain a valuable learning experience from a failure... It's just that YOU MUST SURVIVE that experience to put that learning and gains to any use, yourself... Otherwise, it's still a learning experience, but reserved for someone else. World's MOST dedicated TEACHER??? ;o)
Well seeing he's got a heart attack on midair, even if the parachute deployed and worked properly he would have landed most likely dead. That really makes me question the level of confidence he had in his plan though, maybe a test jump with a dummy could have had prevented this.
Not all tragedies have to be in vain, it’s this type of video that reminds me why I like this channel, sometimes a loss of life can pave for a safer future.
His final seconds of existence had to be absolutely horrific and embarrassing. Unimaginable the terror and shame he was feeling as he plummeted to earth like a stone.
@@KCzz15 Man, on the one hand, I was thinking I hope he died of the heart attack on the way down. Then I thought how much a mid air heart attack would suck😖 Poor, kinda stupid, kinda brilliant man...
Imagine if the parachute had worked perfectly, but still suffered a heart attack, and he landed safely on the ground, dead. That would have spooked a lot of further invention for a while. Even if people completely trusted their designs, it would plant the idea that humans can't take the stress of the trip.
There's something that's going to stick with me about learning that he had a heart attack on the way down... I can't help but wonder what caused it, the shock of the fall itself, or the horrific realization that his invention failed, and it was too late to back off. Maybe a mix of both. Sure you can argue the man was a fool, but it is still kinda sad to think that his life had to end in such a scary way.
In some alternate universe, this story would've been a classic "underdog inventor proves his naysayers wrong", and I think there's a lesson to be learnt in that. When the famous inventors of the past began experimenting with their passion projects, their success came only after repeated failure beforehand (and with a significant amount of luck). The only thing that separates great inventors with confidence and failures with excessive hubris is how much of their faith in their work is justified.
It's so sad because if you watch the film of the drop (not for the faint of heart) you can tell that if he'd done it with a mannequin, he would've learned so much about how to change his design from the film. 😢 The thing did fully unfurl.
Quoting the original plan he was actually going to jump from the second platform but his friends stopped him, if he had jumped from that height his parachute would have fully deployed and might have saved him. The book of Heroic Failures.
I’m going to need someone to explain to me this concept of having a heart attack on the way down. Even someone experiencing a heart attack rarely drops dead immediately, so I can’t imagine post-mortem evidence of an attack really tells us much. You can’t very well say he was dead before hitting the ground or anything, though that would be comforting in some way to think-especially if you’re terrified of heights like me.
I’m also skeptical about this. If you read up about heart attack autopsy, they can find blocked arteries but that doesn’t happen instantly. Any other evidence like dead heart tissue also wouldn’t have had time to happen. On the other hand if his heart stopped due to fright, that’s technically not a heart attack since it’s not caused by blockage - and I doubt they could have seen evidence of that in an autopsy either. But I’m not a doctor so…?
For all his faults, and being blinded by his own ambition, Franz Reichelt had his flaws, but he paved the way for saving a lot of lives in aviation, and that has to be remembered. I'd never heard of him before, and its stories like these that Fascinating Horror brings to memory so well
The sole reason why other parachute inventors weren't as well-known was simply because they cared about safety and didn't attempt to take their own life to make a point.
Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug. I get why he was so convinced it’d work, though. As a kid I used to jump off ledges with my umbrella open. I could feel the air resistance catch, and it really did feel like it made a difference in whether or not I stumbled upon landing. However, my uncle had parachuted a few times while training in the national guard, and he had explained that even with a military grade parachute, you still hit the ground hard enough to explode your knees and decimate your spine if you’re not ready for it. He was good at explaining things.
Reichelt: "Hold my wine." People like him are critical for the survival of our race. We watch them then say things like, "OK, don't eat that." or, "Yeah that didn't work."
I knew the story as soon as you mentioned where and that an invention was involved. I just forgot the name of the poor guy who tried showing it worked.
@@TK-fk4po your kidding? This was filmed? I didn't realize they had that ability back then......then again...I suppose if there was ever something to capture on film....this was it........
@@trevorregay9283 Yeah, search on youtube. This video had clips from it - but of course, the eerie part is him standing on the edge for almost a minute appearing to go back and forth as to whether he should do it, then he jumps and the guy on the ground captures the death plunge and impact and a few seconds of onlookers taking his broken body away.
I once saw a 100ish-year-old video of a man who jumped off the Eiffel tower, supposedly in an early Batman suit. It broke my heart, and I couldn't stop thinking about my little boy who was obsessed with Batman. Now I wonder if it was a video of this man?
This is one of the best channels on youtube. The very finely selected topics, your voice, the way of telling these stories, the respect for the subject and the suspense that you build up very creatively....outstanding performance. Thank you very much for running this creative channel.
One has to admire his passion for discovery and invention. In science, even an experiment with negative results can generate new knowledge. What was it about his design that failed? RIP Franz Reichelt, and congratulations for your contribution in advancing parachute technology.
Indeed, I often say if certain inventions were up to me we'd still be living in caves, without fire, without wheels, without tools...(certainly without litter box liners!) 🤣
Been following this story for a long time, never knew until now about his heart attack. That's what I like about your channel. I always learn something new.
By the way, congratulations on 1M! Brings me great joy to see your continued growth, especially as someone who found you when you had some 7 or 8 uploads. Very well deserved, here's to your continued rise and looking forward to more FH docs!
Wow, isn't it funny how we don't think about the origins of things that we take for granted today? I can't say that I've ever wondered about the origins of the parachute. I've always wondered who was the first person to think that eating a raw oyster was a good idea, but I've never wondered about the first person to think that personally testing the first parachute was a good idea. I love this channel. So many interesting stories about the origins and development of safety measures, tools, and regulations that have impacted society. Thank you!
There was a faction in British Parliament against helmets during WW1, saying they increased head injuries... well ignoring that those head injuries would have been deaths without their helmet. Really it was just because a crippled soldier costs more than a dead one. Of course it's not like private industry is any better. Kids caught in machines and all that.
As someone who has made several airborne jumps in the US Army, and one with the South Korean special ops, I always had a second to contemplate trusting my life with a person who packed the chute (called a Rigger) who I had never met and never seen. How many put their lives in someone else’s hands so unequivocally? In the military we have to have ultimate trust in our comrades.
@@stevenstice6683Personally I'd love to see the 1997 eruption of Mt Wilshire in Los Angeles or the 1997 eruption of Dante's Peak. The capsizing of the SS Poseidon in the seventies would be a good one too.
You always see those black and white videos of the missteps in early aviation, the failures in design of planes and helicopters and parachutes. It's great seeing one of those brought to life, and the story behind them explained.
wow. if he stood, looking down, for several minutes before jumping and had a heart attack, mid-fall, he pretty much got the result that was inevitable.
And to be fair, if any human is to try that invention in action, it may be their inventor. After many tests without humans of course, but imagine someone would tell you "I got this new invention, and all my dummies survived, but we never tested it with a human. You wanna try?" I certainly wouldn't because I would be too scared. Reichelt stood there, uncertain too, but I guess he knew he had to do it because no one else would.
I found the pathe' film showing the incident, including the impact depression it looks very much like something you would see with Bugs Bunny and Wylie Coyote.
Really, somebody had to. A Rocketeer sense of nobility without the precautions of health nor fatality. It really does take a man with at worst a boost of arrogance and showmanship, at beast a novel and world changing sense of bravery and innovation, to do something this insane. Give him this, he went down in the history books, but not for the reason he may have wanted.
sometimes the best of inventions came from mere accidents. Imagine during the jump, Franz's parachute folded just the right way for him to just glide down below. he noticed it, checked how it looked from other photographers present at the time, trimmed some excess stuff on his "chute" and,instead of making a parachute, he made the very first Wingsuit
Should be noted that even modern parachutes will struggle to open within 50m, when doing jumps that low the equipment generally needs to be designed with the platform helping to spread out the chute. 30m seems to be a minimum. His problem may not have been with his design, it may have been with his calculations on how fast it would open, at a time when aerodynamics were still poorly understood. Sad really, the dude was just trying to save lives, but I respect his conviction. Modern life is very sanitized, but back then people took their lives in their own hands to makes progress like this.
At least this episode doesn't follow the "innocent people die, & the people in charge get off Scott-free" formula! He paved the way for others, good for him 👍
As ALWAYS.... another AMAZING video!! This story is so extremely sad...Franz was so damn passionate and proud of his creation and unfortunately a little bit over confident... I feel, if he would have used one of the mannequins, he would have noticed the flaws in his suit... And I can guarantee he would have been immediately making a new design to replace the last one as he did on prior attempts, and POSSIBLY in time could have made the right parachute...but, he was a smart and talented man that put his whole heart and life into his creation, WHICH helped to lead the way to what is used today!! (**To bad he wasn't around long enough to see it!!😥🙏)
I'm actually very impressed and thankful for Franz and other inventors like him, because even though it was fatal, it was because of him that we learned what didn't work which if I recall correctly, is a part of finding out what does. There's an expression I heard a while ago and I think it applies here: "There's no such thing as a failed experiment."
This was one of the very rare examples of a truly failed experiment. If he had used a mannequin and it was destroyed on impact, even that would've been a valuable outcome as it would provide him with data to work on his next iteration. This just provided the Parisian concrete with a wet splat.
@@coconutsmarties Whether it was a non living construct made out of plastic or a biological organism, the end result was the same: His parachute suit didn't work. It was tragic but we all learned something from this experiment.
It's a tragic story. The footage we have of the event is so sad to see. A lure of big money on offer and his desire to not just claim a reward but to also make his name known to many. It's unfortunate that we know his name now for the wrong reasons. His pausing on the jump is difficult to watch. For me I see a man who adored the excitement and attention from the crowds and yet once there, stood on the boundary he's pretty much regretting his choices. It's like he's regretting being there and it's only the desire to please a crowd that makes him leap. I expect his heart was already going into meltdown before he jumped - his body rejecting his life choices. I'm pleased you made this video. It gives us a much better understanding of the man and his life and dreams. Thanks for sharing.
But even the Wright Brothers realized that attempting to fly or glide involved risking their lives with their invention. You could say Reichelt was doing the same with his parachute suit, but his results ended very tragically.
God, you’re really good at building tension with your delivery. My palms were getting sweaty listening to this account. My fear of heights helped, but it was mostly your narration. I wish he’d followed his proposal and used a mannequin, but I commend his desire to be a pioneer. Sad way to go.
I’m very much enjoying the fact that the two ads I was forced to watch in order to enjoy this video were for stain remover & life insurance. The gods of UA-cam ads are comics.
Another great job! I always look forward to your new releases and save them so I can watch them while I eat my lunch. Keep up the good work . Cheers Pat in New Jersey
8:27 "The Titanic would have never crashed if it had no life rafts. If the passengers had no option for retreat, they'd plug the hole with their bloated carcasses and save the day" ~SsethTzeentach, WW1 general
The real tragic part is, and it's often not stated in articles mocking him, he DID do dummy experiments prior and the design did have the possibility of working. Reichelt's jump was doomed because the chute didn't unfold as it was supposed to. Had it worked properly, he would have landed relatively safely. Quite sad. He was bold and intelligent, but obviously a bit too confident to heed caution.
Even with 20/20 hindsight (and we all know what 2020 was like), this guy needed better friends. We weren't exactly great at understanding aerodynamics in those days, but this was predictable just with the poor results he had already gotten. If nothing else, the guard could have tackled the guy when he tried to jump. At least his death hasn't been forgotten, and we did learn from it.
Always a good day when it starts with a Fascinating Horror video! This was like a slow train wreck, but still, respect. His intentions were good, and failure is as much a part of science as success.
I knew a lady (over a 104 yrs old in the 70's), whose only son was killed in a WWI airplane crash. I wonder if he could have been saved by a parachute.
Well, I'll hand it to him: he was confident to the end and he didn't try to coerce anyone else into being his human guinea pig. At least he went out chasing his dream.
Man, times were wild back in the day. I remember reading a book at uni all about different entertainment at the end of the 19th century in Paris and it was a crazy time. I remember reading that the morgues would take all the unclamed Jane and John Does, dress them up, pose them and put them behind glass and people would make an afternoon of just going to stare at dead cadavers. Crazy stuff. I think the book was called Spectacular Realities or something like that. Really interesting read.
My grandparents both turned 1 year old in 1912. Crazy they were actually alive when this happened!! I rather feel terrible his dream ended so disastrously. 💔
If you're in the mood for a story about someone SURVIVING a fall with a non-functional parachute, may I recommend my video on Victoria Cilliers, who did just that in 2015: ua-cam.com/video/t-Losn-FiEs/v-deo.html
I think the fact that he had a heart attack on the way down gives us some insight into how quickly he realized how badly this was going to end. Yikes, poor fellow.
The old days right?
It's like he realized as soon as he jumped that his parachute would not save his life but would rather extend his death, at which point his heart suffered a shock-induced heart attack.
If that knocked him out, it would've been a mercy, but if it didn't, then for a few seconds he would've been in both mental AND physical pain before he hit the ground and abruptly ceased to be.
That and the fact that he didn't have someone at the base of the tower with a Wet-vac to clean up his mess, which is technically littering...which is a fine and possible jail time...I'd have a heart attack to if I realized that on the way down...fines are expensive and jail time is unpleasant.
I actually find that hard to believe. I've got to call bullshit.
@@moonytheloony6516
Well said, Moony!! You are, quite likely, right.
You're the first person I've seen that treated this man's death with respect and for that you have mine.
Then you should listen to the Cautionary Tales podcast episode of this very incident from 2022.
@@get2dachoppa249 I'll take a look. Thanks for the recommendation :)
This channel is always very respectful regarding all the disasters they cover. One of my favorite things about it.
Very objective and fact based channel. However doesn't stop me from calling the guy what he was: a moron. We meet people all the time in life who have inflated opinions of their intelligence and are incapable of listening to others. They are almost universally disliked, but apparently when their stupidity ends in their death, we must now treat them with respect. An odd human superstition. You may keep it.
Exactly ! He could have shown the video of the jump but he didn t . That shows the respect and delicacy .
It's important to understand the context behind Reichelt's actions in order to fully understand his reasoning. Paris during the Belle Epoque/Edwardian era was a magnet for all sorts of inventors, pioneers and cranks. If you wanted to make a name for yourself then Paris was the place to be and there'd be no shortage of people to encourage you. There's little wonder he felt so confident.
Thank you for the background info.
Given the recent build of thr Eiffel Tower, I could surmise as much, but his inability to see that there could be any defects to his inventiom was the definition of stubborn. He should've at least had something to brace his fall. Especially as he must've been rather scared and had a heart attack on the way down (probably in the milliseconds it took to realize his parachute suit didn't work).
I was wondering if he possibly was convinced that death was better than failure
Bro was just crazy
It's not important. The past doesn't exist. - Science
Considering the time and place, if Reichelt hadn't jumped, someone else probably would have. It feels like one of those nearly inevitable historical moments, especially considering the push at the time to succeed in inventing a practical parachute.
My great grandmother from my dad's side, and my grandmother from my mother's side, were both rescued from death by their respective older sisters, who were killed in the act of those rescues. If either of those extremely unlikely events hadn't occurred, my entire family line would not exist.
Reichelt's death could indeed have not only prevented the demise of some other random inventor, but also all the good that then came from that person's survival. We'll never know.
@@casbyness
I like the way you think. 👍❤
Lol
@@casbyness xd
"it's a cannon event"
Ad a security guard myself, I can assure you, this is not the stupidest person a security guard has had to deal with.
Do tell.
As a regular civilian, an average security guard/bouncer is way dumber than this guy.
@@fullshark09 indeed xd
@@fullshark09 I doubt it. None of them would have jumped.
As a person who had to take business law and see how liability works and how lawsuits can come from anything.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying.
The only good thing about having insomnia is catching a new Fascinating Horror upload at 4:15 am
I sometimes wonder whether watching these at those times are contributing to the insomnia!
east coast guy how’s the weather
@@JDLupus Nah its more the stress of trying to survive and pay the bills for me.
I hope you have a blue-blocker on your screen, or you'll never get to sleep
No idea why I just woke up at 3am to watch this video.
There's the strong possibility this was the first time a human death was ever captured on film. Strange thing to think about in these times...
That's an interesting thought you might be right. The first in all our history
it's rare to see deaths on film at all. the only thing I can think of is when they show some disaster and you know that people are being killed, but you never actually see the people
@@richardhunter132 They capture the deaths, they just don't show them.
@@richardhunter132 I mean they did record quite a lot of the World Wars didn’t they
Factory accidents are commonly caught on camera too, often in countries with less worker safety
I think this is a great example of the sunk cost fallacy as well. People everywhere telling him not to continue and him literally breaking bones but this was the one thing he’s worked on for years so it’ll work if I get a chance in Paris.
Evil Knievel had the same problem
Reichelt was also incredibly passionate about *safety* and protecting the people who would, hypothetically, use his inventions. A huge motivating factor in his work to design a parachute suit was his desire to create a piece of safety equipment that would protect people’s lives.
I deeply respect his desire to do good and his ingenuity, even though he ended up dying due to his invention.
He ended up dying due to his spectacular arrogance, not his invention.
Since this story is so depressing, I'd like to imagine an alternate universe version where his parachute also fails but he was able to glide to safety using his magnificent mustache, Dumbo the elephant style.
This then start a new age of mustache-powered aviation.
This is so absurd it caught me off guard but I love it 😂
Love this
My immediate thought was of the ends of his mustache turning into propellers like Yosemite Sam.
Everything everywhere all at once fully supports this idea, and it most definitely happened in an alternate universe
@@rainey1987 The idea of a multiverse where anything and everything happens is preposterous. It doesn’t account for realism and the laws of the universe
I didn't know about the heart attack. But he tried to help people and that's worth some respect from us.
he did it for the money.
There is that 5 letter cuss word again!👿🤑 Money 🤑(Greed ) that is the root of all evil 👿👿!!!
Do you ever wonder how they could tell he had a heart attack?
@@Fighter4Street
I think it involves good grades at school, collage or university and then experience. That's about all I can think of. 🧐
@@Fighter4Street Rien ne permet d'affirmer qu'il est mort d'une crise cardiaque. On a seulement constaté son décès, rien de plus car aucune autopsie n'a été réalisée.
Shout out to the guard giving it one last attempt to stop him. 💪 Good heart on that one.
Yeah, I thought so too.
@@pinkyuzu You don't normally hear those details even if they happened. Especially these days. We film eachother die within feet of eachother.
knowing what NOT to do, and the consequences of doing it, is probably even more important than knowing how to do it. This wouldn't have become such a significant lesson if he hadn't made it so... dramatic. At least he died for something.
And yet, there are SO many Jurassic Park movies...
But no, you're right. Learning what DOESN'T work is very much part of the scientific process. It's always a shame when it comes at a high cost, but it wasn't meaningless. And his heart was in the right place: parachutes are valuable to air travel.
@@Horizon429 He's definitely famous for his endeavors.
lol yeah, if you know what to do and still screw it up then it's a somewhat smaller(comparatively) lesson than NOT knowing what to do and screwing it up. screwing it up as you did NOT know what to do means A LOT has to be learned and set in stone
I guess....however, I do get the sense from this vid that thee was some kind of race to find or develop a parachute type device for the nascent air travel mode......that being said, I don't he was responsible for bringing this to the forefront or anyone used his "design" to further parachuting.....perhaps others considered how to make one less cumbersome and looked briefly at what this guy was pushing, but knew full well that you definitely needed far more surface area of a chute in order to slow its descent......anyway, I don't think we can call this man the father of the parachute or casualty of its future development...
Well said.
Your documentaries are so well researched, scripted, and produced. I look forward every Tuesday to watching them. Thank you for sharing your dedication and sharing these with us.
And thank YOU for watching! I love being able to share these stories.
Yes I love history and these are awesome 👍🏾
I gotta give him a 10 out of 10 for effort. He cared about whom would use his invention, did his research and was confident enough in the product to demonstrate it himself. Really you can't ask for a better inventor. It makes it all the more tragic. But his death isn't in vain because it did save some lives im sure there is at least one person who believed his idea would work and maybe even didn't know him but has a similar idea and abandoned the idea due to the tragedy. He didn't show us what worked that day but he did show us what DIDN'T work. That ultimately made others tweak their designs.
@@mattmc5069 Sadly, while he could surely construct the suit he didn't design it based on testing prototypes or perhaps variants. Imagine what he'd have improved had he learned from the tower with a 'dummy'. One could say he tried too hard. He was pushing the envelope as were all the others. Then we now have wing suits, but I can't imagine how one would land, esp if not trained to do so. Hmm ..
It's enlightening to hear the details that led up to the jump. When you first hear about the story, you get this impression that no one tried to stop him or that no one cared about safety back then, but this video shows that wasn't entirely true.
I deeply respect Franz commitment. He went all in on his dream.
Just a pity he didn't have the patience for a few more trail runs.
Even moreso that his dream was to save others.
To be fair, I don’t think too many more trail runs would have helped. Hard to inflate a parachute at ground level effectively.
*TRIAL, not TRAIL
"I intend to prove the worth of my invention"
Mission accomplished I guess.
Mission failed successfully.
@@Horizon429 Well, he did achieve fame I guess. The price of it was a bit steep though...
He was a early Darwin award winner.
💀👍
🤣
He certainly should have had confidence in his invention, that is confidence it was not safe. He sure had guts and most likely helped other inventors learn from his mistake.
yes, the failure could be a learning opportunity. But it's only a learning opportunity if you don't make yourself the guinea pig. The mannequin can also give a good 'wat if' scenerio. Such as, 'what if the pilot was injured, or somehow otherwise incompacitated, can they still safely get down?'
He fell so that we could someday float 😀
One could say he made a huge impact in parachute design...
@@zombiedoggie2732 Actually, you CAN be the guinea pig and still gain a valuable learning experience from a failure... It's just that YOU MUST SURVIVE that experience to put that learning and gains to any use, yourself... Otherwise, it's still a learning experience, but reserved for someone else.
World's MOST dedicated TEACHER??? ;o)
Well seeing he's got a heart attack on midair, even if the parachute deployed and worked properly he would have landed most likely dead. That really makes me question the level of confidence he had in his plan though, maybe a test jump with a dummy could have had prevented this.
Not all tragedies have to be in vain, it’s this type of video that reminds me why I like this channel, sometimes a loss of life can pave for a safer future.
Indeed. Often it is only after we smell the scent of failure that we can sniff the wife of success. Or something like that 😂🎉
This one was totally in vain. Could have used a mannequin
@@BrenMurphy1 Go sniff someone else's wife!
“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” - W.C. Fields
That's one of my favorite quotes.
Quentin Crisp had a similar variation I quite like: “If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.”
His final seconds of existence had to be absolutely horrific and embarrassing. Unimaginable the terror and shame he was feeling as he plummeted to earth like a stone.
His mustache was absolutely AWESOME . It's a shame what happened, but the mustache, pure brilliance!
Dude is actually a pioneer. He is the world’s first BASE jumper.
So that is what the E stands for in BASE ... Eiffel....
Based base jumper
More like the world's first darwin award
His biggest problem is he couldn't also be the worlds SECOND base jumper.
How often do planes crash?
Just once.
this one is insane. you have to wonder if he knew exactly what was going to happen, honestly.
What could have he been thinking when the dummy didn't work and he still went ahead and tried it?
@@xSayresthx he was thinking he only needed more height
He knew exactly what was going to happen, halfway down the fall when he had his heart attack.
As someone who was a stunt arranger, and participant, you have to be somewhat touched to not do all you can go mitigate the risk.
@@KCzz15 Man, on the one hand, I was thinking I hope he died of the heart attack on the way down. Then I thought how much a mid air heart attack would suck😖 Poor, kinda stupid, kinda brilliant man...
"A man's got to know his limitations."
- Inspector Harold Francis Callahan
Imagine if the parachute had worked perfectly, but still suffered a heart attack, and he landed safely on the ground, dead.
That would have spooked a lot of further invention for a while. Even if people completely trusted their designs, it would plant the idea that humans can't take the stress of the trip.
Reminded me of this.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hayes_(jockey)
Imagine bringing some of these inventors into the future to today and seeing their reactions to today's technology.
Those inventors: "Like wtf guys it's 2023 and you lot STILL don't have flying cars?!"
Hey look! An "Imagine" comment!
@@martinc.720 You should see all my other comments on YT 😁
Why are you mad at Dollar General?🤔🤔🤔
@@funniebunnie4u just do some research.
Poor man, but happy to have his story treated with such respect. Always the best work my good sir
There's something that's going to stick with me about learning that he had a heart attack on the way down... I can't help but wonder what caused it, the shock of the fall itself, or the horrific realization that his invention failed, and it was too late to back off. Maybe a mix of both. Sure you can argue the man was a fool, but it is still kinda sad to think that his life had to end in such a scary way.
In some alternate universe, this story would've been a classic "underdog inventor proves his naysayers wrong", and I think there's a lesson to be learnt in that.
When the famous inventors of the past began experimenting with their passion projects, their success came only after repeated failure beforehand (and with a significant amount of luck). The only thing that separates great inventors with confidence and failures with excessive hubris is how much of their faith in their work is justified.
It's so sad because if you watch the film of the drop (not for the faint of heart) you can tell that if he'd done it with a mannequin, he would've learned so much about how to change his design from the film. 😢 The thing did fully unfurl.
Quoting the original plan he was actually going to jump from the second platform but his friends stopped him, if he had jumped from that height his parachute would have fully deployed and might have saved him. The book of Heroic Failures.
I always learn something new from this channel, even about incidents I've heard about many times before.
Just wanted to say. The tune you use in the beginning and end fits perfectly with your vids!
Very true, it's foreboding..
I’m going to need someone to explain to me this concept of having a heart attack on the way down. Even someone experiencing a heart attack rarely drops dead immediately, so I can’t imagine post-mortem evidence of an attack really tells us much. You can’t very well say he was dead before hitting the ground or anything, though that would be comforting in some way to think-especially if you’re terrified of heights like me.
I’m also skeptical about this. If you read up about heart attack autopsy, they can find blocked arteries but that doesn’t happen instantly. Any other evidence like dead heart tissue also wouldn’t have had time to happen. On the other hand if his heart stopped due to fright, that’s technically not a heart attack since it’s not caused by blockage - and I doubt they could have seen evidence of that in an autopsy either. But I’m not a doctor so…?
I love this channel. Your work is always respectful and never sensational.
For all his faults, and being blinded by his own ambition, Franz Reichelt had his flaws, but he paved the way for saving a lot of lives in aviation, and that has to be remembered. I'd never heard of him before, and its stories like these that Fascinating Horror brings to memory so well
The sole reason why other parachute inventors weren't as well-known was simply because they cared about safety and didn't attempt to take their own life to make a point.
@@ng.tr.s.p.1254 I keep thinking of a certain submersible called - what was it, Titan?
Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug. I get why he was so convinced it’d work, though. As a kid I used to jump off ledges with my umbrella open. I could feel the air resistance catch, and it really did feel like it made a difference in whether or not I stumbled upon landing. However, my uncle had parachuted a few times while training in the national guard, and he had explained that even with a military grade parachute, you still hit the ground hard enough to explode your knees and decimate your spine if you’re not ready for it. He was good at explaining things.
Reichelt: "Hold my wine."
People like him are critical for the survival of our race. We watch them then say things like, "OK, don't eat that." or, "Yeah that didn't work."
I knew the story as soon as you mentioned where and that an invention was involved. I just forgot the name of the poor guy who tried showing it worked.
Beautiful 😢 ❤️
The footage of his death plunge is readily available on UA-cam. It is very eerie.
@@TK-fk4po your kidding? This was filmed? I didn't realize they had that ability back then......then again...I suppose if there was ever something to capture on film....this was it........
@@trevorregay9283 Yeah, search on youtube. This video had clips from it - but of course, the eerie part is him standing on the edge for almost a minute appearing to go back and forth as to whether he should do it, then he jumps and the guy on the ground captures the death plunge and impact and a few seconds of onlookers taking his broken body away.
I once saw a 100ish-year-old video of a man who jumped off the Eiffel tower, supposedly in an early Batman suit. It broke my heart, and I couldn't stop thinking about my little boy who was obsessed with Batman.
Now I wonder if it was a video of this man?
Yes, it was.
@@isaacnoroncaasi I wonder if the UA-cam video is still there. Know what I mean?
@@ferociousgumby There is only one way to find out.
This is one of the best channels on youtube. The very finely selected topics, your voice, the way of telling these stories, the respect for the subject and the suspense that you build up very creatively....outstanding performance. Thank you very much for running this creative channel.
One has to admire his passion for discovery and invention. In science, even an experiment with negative results can generate new knowledge. What was it about his design that failed? RIP Franz Reichelt, and congratulations for your contribution in advancing parachute technology.
Indeed, I often say if certain inventions were up to me we'd still be living in caves, without fire, without wheels, without tools...(certainly without litter box liners!) 🤣
Stockton Rush, anyone? He sure came up with some innovations.
To this day, this man was a pioneer to greater things than he could have imagined.
New Fascinating Horror videos always make my week better
Been following this story for a long time, never knew until now about his heart attack. That's what I like about your channel. I always learn something new.
By the way, congratulations on 1M! Brings me great joy to see your continued growth, especially as someone who found you when you had some 7 or 8 uploads. Very well deserved, here's to your continued rise and looking forward to more FH docs!
Wow, isn't it funny how we don't think about the origins of things that we take for granted today? I can't say that I've ever wondered about the origins of the parachute. I've always wondered who was the first person to think that eating a raw oyster was a good idea, but I've never wondered about the first person to think that personally testing the first parachute was a good idea. I love this channel. So many interesting stories about the origins and development of safety measures, tools, and regulations that have impacted society. Thank you!
How about the guy that discovered milk? I bet he was into a lot of creepy stuff.
And…
The Artichoke.
Who can look at a large Thistle & think there’s something edible there.
But…. They are delicious.
Who knew.
“We’d rather have pilots die with the plane than have a parachute because planes are expensive”
It’s nice to see that governments have always sucked
Probably would have better luck surviving trying to land the plane than using some moron's death trap "parachute" but kk
There was a faction in British Parliament against helmets during WW1, saying they increased head injuries... well ignoring that those head injuries would have been deaths without their helmet. Really it was just because a crippled soldier costs more than a dead one. Of course it's not like private industry is any better. Kids caught in machines and all that.
@@nonna_sof5889 Or maybe they didn't understand the concept of survivorship bias.
As someone who has made several airborne jumps in the US Army, and one with the South Korean special ops, I always had a second to contemplate trusting my life with a person who packed the chute (called a Rigger) who I had never met and never seen. How many put their lives in someone else’s hands so unequivocally? In the military we have to have ultimate trust in our comrades.
And yet it amazes me that people continue to look around and say "Ya know things really suck rn you know what the solution is? More government!"
Hope you'll do something for April like you did last year with the Isla Nublar Incident.
Probably, the year before had video on the Amity Bay shark incident, trying to brainstorm in my head movies he could do…
The Nakatomi Plaza Crisis was highly requested.
@@stevenstice6683Personally I'd love to see the 1997 eruption of Mt Wilshire in Los Angeles or the 1997 eruption of Dante's Peak. The capsizing of the SS Poseidon in the seventies would be a good one too.
you normies, stop discussing this. he will do what he will do.
I don't actually want him to do The Snap, but just imagining Infinity War/Endgame being told in this format is very funny to me.
Amazed you have covered this today. I was just talking to the guys at work about this on Friday.
You always see those black and white videos of the missteps in early aviation, the failures in design of planes and helicopters and parachutes. It's great seeing one of those brought to life, and the story behind them explained.
wow. if he stood, looking down, for several minutes before jumping and had a heart attack, mid-fall, he pretty much got the result that was inevitable.
When that parachute didn't deploy, he simply gave up the ghost. He knew it was over. RIP
And to be fair, if any human is to try that invention in action, it may be their inventor. After many tests without humans of course, but imagine someone would tell you "I got this new invention, and all my dummies survived, but we never tested it with a human. You wanna try?" I certainly wouldn't because I would be too scared. Reichelt stood there, uncertain too, but I guess he knew he had to do it because no one else would.
@@SpaceCadet45s Amen.
@@DerMichael
HAHAHAHA!!! Touche’
So glad you pointed out that he was willing to prove his invention worked. And just because he failed it didn't make him mad scientist.
Your videos never fail to live up to your channel’s name!
His confidence was his downfall but it’s admirable how tenacious his resolve was and how confident he was in himself
A bad day. His invention failed, he had a heart attack, and he had to climb 347 stairs to do it.
I found the pathe' film showing the incident, including the impact depression it looks very much like something you would see with Bugs Bunny and Wylie Coyote.
I just saw the actual footage, of course FH narration is just spot on
Really, somebody had to. A Rocketeer sense of nobility without the precautions of health nor fatality. It really does take a man with at worst a boost of arrogance and showmanship, at beast a novel and world changing sense of bravery and innovation, to do something this insane. Give him this, he went down in the history books, but not for the reason he may have wanted.
'At beast' lol
sometimes the best of inventions came from mere accidents.
Imagine during the jump, Franz's parachute folded just the right way for him to just glide down below.
he noticed it, checked how it looked from other photographers present at the time, trimmed some excess stuff on his "chute"
and,instead of making a parachute, he made the very first Wingsuit
Should be noted that even modern parachutes will struggle to open within 50m, when doing jumps that low the equipment generally needs to be designed with the platform helping to spread out the chute. 30m seems to be a minimum.
His problem may not have been with his design, it may have been with his calculations on how fast it would open, at a time when aerodynamics were still poorly understood. Sad really, the dude was just trying to save lives, but I respect his conviction. Modern life is very sanitized, but back then people took their lives in their own hands to makes progress like this.
I appreciate you not showing the footage, why I like and respect this channel its not about shock
Would have been removed by UA-cam.
@@martinc.720 The full unedited footage is on youtube, has been for years.
We can learn one thing from Reichelt. Conviction.
And gravity never fails
Or the wisdom of “Let’s not and say we did.”
Avoid France at all costs?
At least this episode doesn't follow the "innocent people die, & the people in charge get off Scott-free" formula!
He paved the way for others, good for him 👍
As ALWAYS.... another AMAZING video!! This story is so extremely sad...Franz was so damn passionate and proud of his creation and unfortunately a little bit over confident... I feel, if he would have used one of the mannequins, he would have noticed the flaws in his suit... And I can guarantee he would have been immediately making a new design to replace the last one as he did on prior attempts, and POSSIBLY in time could have made the right parachute...but, he was a smart and talented man that put his whole heart and life into his creation, WHICH helped to lead the way to what is used today!!
(**To bad he wasn't around long enough to see it!!😥🙏)
He went from hypothesis to conclusion, without observation or methodology. Not a good idea with novel technology and science.
He was NOT a smart man. lol 😂
He failed to understand the gravity of the situation.
You win the internet today
LOL
He really made an impact on the world.
Whoooshh!
Gotta admire the courage.
And confidence.
Wisdom, on the other hand...
Oceangate comes to mind.
Love❤ your channel. Thank you for sharing these stories.
I'm actually very impressed and thankful for Franz and other inventors like him, because even though it was fatal, it was because of him that we learned what didn't work which if I recall correctly, is a part of finding out what does.
There's an expression I heard a while ago and I think it applies here:
"There's no such thing as a failed experiment."
This was one of the very rare examples of a truly failed experiment. If he had used a mannequin and it was destroyed on impact, even that would've been a valuable outcome as it would provide him with data to work on his next iteration.
This just provided the Parisian concrete with a wet splat.
@@coconutsmarties Whether it was a non living construct made out of plastic or a biological organism, the end result was the same:
His parachute suit didn't work.
It was tragic but we all learned something from this experiment.
'Always wear a labcoat so it's an experiment'
It's a tragic story. The footage we have of the event is so sad to see. A lure of big money on offer and his desire to not just claim a reward but to also make his name known to many. It's unfortunate that we know his name now for the wrong reasons.
His pausing on the jump is difficult to watch. For me I see a man who adored the excitement and attention from the crowds and yet once there, stood on the boundary he's pretty much regretting his choices. It's like he's regretting being there and it's only the desire to please a crowd that makes him leap. I expect his heart was already going into meltdown before he jumped - his body rejecting his life choices.
I'm pleased you made this video. It gives us a much better understanding of the man and his life and dreams. Thanks for sharing.
But even the Wright Brothers realized that attempting to fly or glide involved risking their lives with their invention. You could say Reichelt was doing the same with his parachute suit, but his results ended very tragically.
That was a truly fascinating story. It really proves that there are lessons to be learned from someone else's mistakes.
God, you’re really good at building tension with your delivery. My palms were getting sweaty listening to this account. My fear of heights helped, but it was mostly your narration.
I wish he’d followed his proposal and used a mannequin, but I commend his desire to be a pioneer. Sad way to go.
Thank you for narrating so clearly and at a normal pace.
Another excellent episode Sir!!!🙏👌🦉❣️
I’m very much enjoying the fact that the two ads I was forced to watch in order to enjoy this video were for stain remover & life insurance. The gods of UA-cam ads are comics.
Loved this documentary! Thanks for creating it.👍
Excellent video. I look forward to each of your videos. Your research is solid and your presentation is engaging. Thanks so much!
There is courage and there is reckless. There is a fine line in between…
Another great job! I always look forward to your new releases and save them so I can watch them while I eat my lunch. Keep up the good work . Cheers Pat in New Jersey
His biggest mistake was saying “See you soon!”. That’s like saying “I’ll be right back.” in a horror film.
History is filled with people doing the right things in the wrong way. It just shows that failure is something we can all learn from.
I’ll say this, he had an absolutely fantastic mustache.
Poison would have been impressed.
Poirot
8:27 "The Titanic would have never crashed if it had no life rafts. If the passengers had no option for retreat, they'd plug the hole with their bloated carcasses and save the day"
~SsethTzeentach, WW1 general
The real tragic part is, and it's often not stated in articles mocking him, he DID do dummy experiments prior and the design did have the possibility of working. Reichelt's jump was doomed because the chute didn't unfold as it was supposed to. Had it worked properly, he would have landed relatively safely. Quite sad. He was bold and intelligent, but obviously a bit too confident to heed caution.
Even with 20/20 hindsight (and we all know what 2020 was like), this guy needed better friends. We weren't exactly great at understanding aerodynamics in those days, but this was predictable just with the poor results he had already gotten. If nothing else, the guard could have tackled the guy when he tried to jump.
At least his death hasn't been forgotten, and we did learn from it.
Always a good day when it starts with a Fascinating Horror video! This was like a slow train wreck, but still, respect. His intentions were good, and failure is as much a part of science as success.
I knew a lady (over a 104 yrs old in the 70's), whose only son was killed in a WWI airplane crash. I wonder if he could have been saved by a parachute.
Read that as: 'I knew a lady lover 104 years old'..
I recently heard of this story in the Cautionary Tales podcast. Thanks for sharing this detailed account.
187 feet. Dang, even into water, that would've been nuts.
Well, I'll hand it to him: he was confident to the end and he didn't try to coerce anyone else into being his human guinea pig. At least he went out chasing his dream.
Man, times were wild back in the day. I remember reading a book at uni all about different entertainment at the end of the 19th century in Paris and it was a crazy time. I remember reading that the morgues would take all the unclamed Jane and John Does, dress them up, pose them and put them behind glass and people would make an afternoon of just going to stare at dead cadavers. Crazy stuff. I think the book was called Spectacular Realities or something like that. Really interesting read.
And what about the organised head on train collisions, that was crazy. Like monster truck rally of the age.
@@farfaraway4285 Oh yeah, those must have been something else.
He really is a pioneer. A pioneer in the field of failing spectacularly after people tried to talk him out of it. The very first “hold my beer “
Well, Franz sure fell for that one...
but he did leave with quite an impact providing a heart-stopping thrill for his audience.
Good morning
Hey
Morning! But it's actually evening for me, 8:46PM 😊
@@jessicad83 5:16 AM :D
Hi :)
Hi Uncle Grandpa
My grandparents both turned 1 year old in 1912. Crazy they were actually alive when this happened!! I rather feel terrible his dream ended so disastrously. 💔
My Grandfather was also born in 1911, that is crazy being alive when this happened! How far we've come in a short time!
Over a century before his time. Look at the parachute suits now.
You are no doubt referring to MC Hammer’s parachute pants