Leonardo da Vinci designed a fighting vehicle as an armored, wheeled machine for soldiers.
Leonardo sketched the vehicle around 1487–1490 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Its conical cover was intended to deflect enemy weapons, while crew members inside would turn cranks connected to wheels. The design is often called Leonardo’s tank because its protective shell resembles the basic idea of a modern armored vehicle.
The machine was not built as a practical battlefield vehicle in Leonardo’s lifetime. Its drawings show a compact platform with several cannons around the lower edge, but the vehicle would have been difficult to steer and propel. A frequently repeated claim says Leonardo deliberately inserted a design error to prevent others from using it; historians treat that explanation cautiously because the drawing may simply contain a technical mistake.
Leonardo’s concept is therefore best understood as an early armored fighting-vehicle design, not as the first operational tank.