Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute in 1485 as a pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen.
The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, where Leonardo described a rigid pyramid about 7.2 metres wide and 7.2 metres high. He proposed that a person could descend safely from a great height inside it. The sketch is one of his clearest studies of controlled vertical descent.
Leonardo’s parachute was a design concept, not a documented flight-tested invention. Its broad cloth canopy would have created air resistance, slowing a fall. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nicholas built and tested a replica based on Leonardo’s proportions; the replica descended successfully, although Nicholas used a modern backup parachute for safety.
This design is often confused with Leonardo’s flying-machine studies. A parachute does not generate powered lift or sustained forward flight: it reduces a falling person’s speed. The modern parachute developed much later through experiments with flexible canopies and practical suspension systems.