The Tailor from Ulm

In 1791 near Vienna, the protagonist spots a runaway hot-air balloon carrying a distressed lady crying for help. He chases and helps, an act he has never witnessed before. The grateful Moretti family takes him in, and he begins reading a book about flight, his fascination with birds deepening.

Through the Moretti family, he meets Jakob von Degen, an early experimenter in human flight. Degen speaks of his flying machine and invites the protagonist to a public demonstration. This encounter seeds his dreams of taking to the skies.

Two years pass and the story shifts to Ulm, where Albrecht works as a tailor with a wife. Degen, now married to Irma, visits en route to Paris to demonstrate his flying machine behind a coach-cart. The promise of flight begins to pull Albrecht into new ambitions.

In a tavern, Kaspar Fesslen is tossed out after leafleting about a Paris demonstration. Whispers label him a Jacobin trying to incite rebellion. The political heat foreshadows the trouble that will entangle Albrecht's experiments.

Albrecht unveils a wing-shaped glider and attempts to fly down a hillside, but he tumbles and is left injured. His wife discovers the damaged machine, and the episode hardens his resolve. Fesslen visits and invites him back to his printshop, stoking the talk of flight.

At Fesslen's printshop, Albrecht discusses flight and becomes drawn into rebellious circles. The crackdown follows: his house and goods are confiscated and Fesslen is imprisoned. The setback forces him to rethink his approach and pursue the dream in secret.

Albrecht breaks into his old workshop to rebuild the flying machine. Tests grow more ambitious, but each ascent ends in a crash, testing his perseverance and belief that flight is possible. The dream endures despite repeated failure.

During the Napoleonic Wars and the siege of Ulm, revolutionary sympathisers offer financial support to fund his research. The extra resources give him the means to push the project forward. Momentum returns to the distant dream of flight.

With backing, he achieves his first fully successful flight from a local hill and lands safely. Fesslen is released and stays with him, dying soon after, while Irma appears and they plan a public Pentecost performance. The team grows closer as the dream edges toward a public test.

They prepare to stage a Pentecost demonstration of the flying machine and invite Herr Degen to attend. The authorities push for a display that would impress the King of Württemberg, heightening the stakes for everyone involved.

On the day of the flight, the launch must occur from a low platform on the town wall rather than a hill. The wind is unfavourable, and the crowd jeers as delays mount. He finally jumps and attempts to fly over the river, but the plan unravels.

He lands in the river and is dragged from the water by soldiers, later awakening in a cart filled with gilded but broken furniture. He fashions a makeshift periscope and, through it, sees himself flying above, a vision of success born from his perilous ordeal.