Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramidal parachute for controlled descent from a height.
Leonardo sketched the design around 1485 in the Codex Atlanticus. It used a rigid wooden frame covered with linen, forming a pyramid approximately 7.2 metres high and 7.2 metres wide at its base. The design was intended to slow a person’s fall by trapping air.
Leonardo did not build or test the parachute. Modern parachutes use flexible fabric canopies, suspension lines, and harnesses, so they differ greatly from his framed concept. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nichols tested a replica and reported that it descended successfully, although the rigid structure made landing hazardous. Leonardo’s design is therefore an early parachute concept, not the first modern parachute.