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Inventors Who Died From Their Own Invention —
#386 —
Franz Reichelt (1912) — Died Testing His Own Parachute Suit
Franz Reichelt was an Austrian-born French tailor and inventor who designed a wearable parachute suit intended to allow pilots to escape from aircraft safely. On February 4, 1912, he tested his invention by jumping from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Despite warnings from officials, Reichelt insisted the suit would work. However, the parachute failed to deploy properly, and he fell to his death in front of witnesses.
His experiment became one of the most famous examples of an inventor dying while testing his own invention.
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