Leonardo da Vinci sketched an armored tank as a conical, armored fighting machine.
His design, usually called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle, appeared in drawings from around 1487–1490. The vehicle had a broad, circular platform covered by angled armor plates. Several light cannons were arranged around its lower edge, allowing fire in different directions.
The machine was intended to be moved by people turning cranks connected to wheels. It was never built in Leonardo’s lifetime, and the surviving design has mechanical problems, including incorrectly arranged gears in some interpretations. The common claim that Leonardo deliberately added a faulty gear system to hide the invention is not firmly established.
The vehicle is often called a tank, but that modern word describes its function rather than Leonardo’s terminology. It was a conceptual siege machine, not a working armored vehicle tested in battle.