Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank with a conical cover and many cannons.
His design, usually called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle, appears in drawings from the late fifteenth century. The vehicle had a circular platform protected by sloped armor, with guns arranged around its edge. The sloping shape was intended to deflect enemy fire.
The tank was to be moved by crews turning cranks connected to wheels. Modern historians have noted that the surviving design contains a mechanical problem: some gear arrangements would make the wheels turn in opposite directions. This may have been deliberate, an error, or a feature of the drawing’s reconstruction.
The machine was never built for battle. It is best understood as an early armored-vehicle concept rather than the direct ancestor of a modern powered tank. Leonardo’s sketches combined military engineering, mechanical transmission, and protective architecture in one design.