Leonardo da Vinci sketched an armored military vehicle commonly known as a tank in the late 15th century.
His design was a covered, conical vehicle with sloping armor and multiple cannons arranged around its sides. The sloped exterior was intended to deflect incoming fire, while the enclosed structure would protect the crew. The vehicle was supposed to move using manually operated wheels and gears.
The fighting vehicle appears in Leonardo’s notebooks and is usually dated to around 1487. It was a concept rather than a completed battlefield machine, and there is no evidence that Leonardo’s original design was constructed in Renaissance Italy.
Some historians note that the drawing contains a mechanical problem: the gearing, as shown, would not work as intended. The familiar name “tank” is modern; Leonardo himself did not use that later term.