Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped linen parachute for a person to descend safely from a height.
His parachute concept appears in the Codex Atlanticus and is commonly dated to around 1485. The design consists of a wooden framework supporting a linen canopy shaped like a pyramid, with the person suspended beneath it. Leonardo reasoned that the structure would catch air and slow a fall.
Leonardo did not report building or testing the device. Modern parachutes usually use flexible canopies that inflate into controlled aerodynamic shapes, so his rigid-framed design differs greatly from parachutes used today. Its importance lies in recognizing the basic principle of increasing air resistance to reduce descent speed.
The design was tested in modern times. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nicholas built a full-scale replica and descended with it, though he switched to a modern parachute near the ground because of concerns about landing safety. The experiment showed that the concept could generate lift and drag, not that Leonardo had created a modern parachute.