Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored fighting vehicle commonly described as an early tank.
His 15th-century design shows a conical, turtle-like vehicle covered with armor and fitted with numerous light cannons around its perimeter. The vehicle was intended to move across a battlefield and provide protection for the people inside while they fired outward.
The drawing appears in Leonardo’s military engineering studies. It is usually dated to around 1487, when Leonardo was seeking patronage from Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The design was never built as a working battlefield vehicle during Leonardo’s lifetime.
Modern writers sometimes call it the first tank, but that label is retrospective. Leonardo’s machine lacked a practical engine and had a mechanical problem in its gearing: the proposed arrangement would make the wheels work against each other unless corrected. It is more precise to call it a tank-like armored vehicle concept.