Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute for safely descending from the air.
He recorded the idea in the Codex Atlanticus, probably around 1485. His drawing shows a rigid-looking pyramid covered with linen cloth and supported by a wooden framework. Leonardo reasoned that the structure would create enough air resistance to slow a person’s fall.
This was a theoretical design, not a documented working parachute built during his lifetime. The modern parachute developed much later, using flexible fabric, suspension lines, and a harness. Leonardo’s design is often called an early parachute concept because it applies the same basic principle: drag reduces a falling body’s speed.
A 2000 experiment by Adrian Nicholas built a version of Leonardo’s design and tested it successfully, although the replica was too heavy to land safely from a great height. The design should therefore be described as a parachute concept, rather than the first modern parachute.