Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute for descending safely from great heights.
His 1485 sketch shows a pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen cloth. The structure was intended to create enough air resistance to slow a person's fall. Leonardo described it as a device that would let a person jump from any height without injury, although he did not build or test it.
The design is often called an early parachute, but it was not the modern fabric canopy used today. Its rigid pyramid shape differs greatly from later parachutes. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nicholas built and tested a full-size version based on Leonardo's drawing; it descended successfully, though he used a modern parachute for safety. Leonardo's concept therefore anticipated parachute principles centuries before practical parachuting developed.