12 Completely Insane Inventions That Actually Got Made

Flight with a wingsuit is the ultimate thrill. To soar through the air amongst the birds as though you are one of them has been a dream of mankind's for generation upon generation. 

Many inventors have come up with their own designs for such a suit, hoping to once and for all, free man from the shackles of gravity.

Franz Reichelt was just such a man. He was a French tailor living in Paris and he, like many, dreamt of soaring into the stratosphere and designed himself a wingsuit. 

Using his skills in tailoring, he designed and made a suit that the press would describe as “only a little more voluminous than ordinary clothing” that looked like "a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk", and confidently set off for the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Reichelt had informed the authorities that he planned on using a test dummy for the suit's maiden flight, but upon arrival at the Eiffel Tower, he instead strapped himself into the suit, such was his faith in its abilities.

At the top of the tower, far above a gathered crowd of journalists and curious members of the public, he threw a handkerchief off the edge to test the wind direction, spread his arms wide and jumped.

Whereupon he promptly plummeted the 187 feet to the ground, producing a six inch deep crater upon impact and transforming himself into strawberry jam.

One magazine published that "his body was a shapeless mass when the police picked it up". The post-mortem, however, was able to declare that he had died of a heart attack on his way down.