Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute for slowing a person’s fall from a height.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, where he described a pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen. Leonardo proposed that the structure could allow a person to descend safely from a great height. The drawing is usually dated to around 1485.
The design was not tested in Leonardo’s lifetime, and it differs from a modern parachute, which normally uses a flexible canopy rather than a rigid frame. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nicholas built and tested a full-scale replica using modern materials. The replica descended successfully, although Nicholas opened a conventional parachute at a safer altitude.
Leonardo’s parachute is often cited as an early concept for human flight safety. It was intended to control descent, not to provide powered flight, so it is distinct from his flying-machine sketches and his aerial screw.