Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramid-shaped parachute for descending safely from a height.
Around 1485, Leonardo described a wooden-frame pyramid covered with linen cloth. His notes proposed that a person could jump from a great height while suspended beneath the canopy. The design was much more rigid and tent-like than modern parachutes.
Leonardo did not leave evidence that he built or tested this parachute. The sketch is nevertheless an important early example of a deliberate parachute design, centuries before practical parachuting developed. Modern parachutes use flexible fabric canopies, suspension lines, and harnesses rather than Leonardo’s framed structure.
The design is sometimes called Leonardo’s parachute, but it should not be confused with the first modern parachute experiments. Those came much later, after improvements in lightweight fabric, cords, and controlled deployment. In 2000, Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale replica based on Leonardo’s measurements and reported that it worked, although he landed using a modern parachute for safety.