Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute-like device in about 1485.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus and consists of a pyramidal wooden frame covered with linen. Leonardo suggested that a person could jump from a height while the structure slowed the descent. The drawing is one of his clearest attempts to apply observation of air resistance to human flight.
The design was not a tested parachute in Leonardo’s lifetime. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nichols built a full-scale version and successfully tested it, although he used a modern parachute for safety after the test apparatus became difficult to control. Leonardo’s concept is therefore historically important as an early parachute design, not as the first practical parachute.
A common mix-up is to call it a modern backpack parachute. Its rigid, pyramid-shaped frame differs substantially from the flexible canopies used today.