Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute as an emergency device for descending safely from great heights.
Around 1485, Leonardo drew a pyramid-shaped canopy in the Codex Atlanticus. His notes described a linen cloth stretched over a wooden frame, with dimensions of about 7.2 metres on each side and 7.2 metres high. The design was intended to let a person descend without injury, although Leonardo did not build or test it.
The sketch shows that Leonardo understood the basic role of drag: a large surface moving through air can slow a falling body. His design was not a modern round parachute, and its rigid pyramid frame would make it heavier and less convenient than later fabric parachutes.
Swiss skydiver Olivier Vietti-Teppa tested a full-size replica in 2000. The replica descended successfully, although it was cut loose from a modern parachute because the rigid structure became difficult to control near the ground.