Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute to slow a person’s descent from the sky.
His parachute appears in a manuscript drawing usually dated to around 1485. The design used a rigid, open-based pyramid covered with linen cloth. Leonardo specified dimensions of roughly 12 braccia on each side and 12 braccia in height; the braccio was a historical unit whose exact length varied.
The concept was based on air resistance. A broad canopy would oppose downward motion and reduce the speed of a falling person, although Leonardo did not record a practical test. The design differs from modern parachutes, which generally use flexible fabric suspended from lines.
In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas built and tested a full-scale replica based on Leonardo’s drawing. It descended successfully, though Nicholas used a modern parachute for the final part of the landing because the rigid historical design could not be steered safely near the ground.