Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute with a pyramid-shaped wooden frame and linen canopy as a device for descending safely from a height.
The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a large collection of Leonardo’s drawings and notes. Its broad canopy was intended to create air resistance, slowing a person’s fall. Leonardo described a structure about 7.2 metres high and wide, although the surviving drawing is more important as a conceptual design than as evidence of a tested device.
The sketch is often called an early parachute design, but it was not a modern backpack parachute. It used a rigid frame, making it bulky and potentially dangerous on landing. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nichols constructed and tested a replica, using a separate parachute for safety.
Fausto Veranzio published another early parachute concept in 1616, decades after Leonardo’s design.