Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramid-shaped parachute as a device for descending safely from great heights.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of his notes and drawings assembled after his death. Leonardo proposed a rigid wooden frame covered with linen cloth, forming a broad pyramid rather than the flexible, rounded canopies used today.
The design was not built and tested in Leonardo’s lifetime. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nichols constructed and tested a modern interpretation, finding that it could descend successfully, although he used a separate parachute for safety. Leonardo’s sketch is therefore an early parachute concept, not the first modern parachute. It is also different from his proposed flying machines, which were intended for powered or gliding flight rather than controlled descent.