What bladed war vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci design to cut through enemy troops?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a scythed chariot to cut through enemy troops.

His concept adapted the ancient scythed chariot, a vehicle fitted with blades that extended from its wheels or axle. Leonardo’s version was drawn as a horse-drawn machine with rotating blades intended to create a dangerous sweeping zone around the vehicle as it moved through a formation.

The design belongs to Leonardo’s broader interest in military engineering. He studied earlier weapons and transformed them through new mechanisms, larger scale, and more systematic drawings. The chariot was a concept rather than a documented working battlefield machine.

A common mistake is to treat the design as uniquely Leonardo’s invention. Scythed chariots had been used in the ancient world, especially by Persian forces, long before Leonardo. His contribution was a Renaissance redesign of the idea, not the original invention of bladed chariots.