Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute to let a person descend slowly from the air.
His 1485 Codex Atlanticus sketch shows a pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen. Leonardo proposed that a person could jump from a height while suspended inside the structure. The design was based on the idea that air resistance would slow a falling body.
Leonardo did not build or test the device, so it was a theoretical design rather than a functioning medieval parachute. Its shape differs from modern round parachutes, which use a canopy and suspension lines. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nichols tested a full-scale reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawing and reported that it worked, although it was difficult to control. Leonardo’s design is often cited as an early parachute concept, but the modern parachute developed much later through separate work by inventors and aviation pioneers.