Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute as a pyramid-shaped device intended to slow a person’s descent through the air. His sketch shows a rigid-looking framework covered with fabric, with a person suspended beneath it. The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a major collection of his drawings and notes.
The parachute idea belongs to Leonardo’s broader study of flight and falling bodies. He reasoned that a structure with enough surface area could resist air and allow a person to descend safely. The surviving drawing is a concept rather than evidence that Leonardo built or tested the device. Modern parachutes use flexible canopies and suspension lines, so they look very different from his proposed pyramidal form.
Leonardo’s parachute should also be separated from his ornithopter sketches, which sought powered flight, and from his aerial screw, which explored vertical ascent. A full-scale replica of his design was tested centuries later, showing that the concept could generate drag, although modern parachuting depends on more practical materials and deployment systems.