Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute to slow a person's fall from the air.
Around 1485, Leonardo sketched a fabric canopy supported by four wooden poles. His notes described a structure about 7.2 metres wide and 7.2 metres high, proportioned to support a person descending vertically. The design appeared in the Codex Atlanticus, among his studies of flight and air resistance.
Leonardo did not demonstrate the device, and the surviving sketch is a design rather than evidence of a completed working parachute. Modern parachutes use flexible canopies, suspension lines, and harnesses, so they differ substantially from his rigid pyramid.
The concept is often linked with Leonardo because his drawing is an unusually early detailed parachute proposal. It should not be confused with his separate studies of winged flying machines, which were intended to generate lift rather than slow a descent.