Leonardo da Vinci sketched a tank-like armored vehicle as a mobile fortress.
His fighting-vehicle design appears in drawings from the late fifteenth century. It featured a conical, turtle-like armored shell and several light cannons arranged around the vehicle, allowing it to fire in multiple directions.
The vehicle was intended to move using mechanisms connected to wheels inside the shell. Some modern commentators have noted that the surviving design contains a gearing problem that would prevent the vehicle from moving as drawn, though scholars debate whether this was deliberate or simply an error.
Calling it a modern tank is convenient but historically imprecise. Leonardo’s machine had no engine, turret, or tracked propulsion; it was a Renaissance concept for a protected gun platform.