Lenormand's parachute descent from the Montpellier Observatory tower
- When
- December 1783 (day disputed: 26 or 31)
- Where
- Montpellier Observatory tower
Lenormand jumped from the observatory tower with a 14-foot rigid-framed parachute before a crowd including Joseph Montgolfier, in late December 1783.
After testing his parachutes on animals and refining a device first tried in a tree jump using modified umbrellas, Lenormand jumped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory using a 14-foot (4.3 m) parachute with a rigid wooden frame. The crowd reportedly included Joseph Montgolfier. One passage dates the jump December 26, 1783, and another calls December 26, 1783 the most widely reported date, while the legacy row records December 31, 1783; the exact day is therefore treated as disputed.
Sources
- Louis-Sébastien Lenormand Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.