Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank-like fighting vehicle with sloped protective plates and internal guns.
His drawing, usually dated to about 1487–1489, shows a conical, turtle-shaped cover mounted on wheels. The vehicle was intended to carry several men and fire weapons through openings in its armor. Sloping surfaces could help deflect incoming projectiles, while the rounded shell offered protection.
The design was powered by cranks turned by people inside. It was never produced as a functioning military vehicle, and historians have noted that the gear arrangement in the surviving drawing appears unable to move the vehicle as shown. Some writers have suggested this may have been deliberate, but there is no firm proof of Leonardo’s intention.
Calling it a tank is a modern comparison, not Leonardo’s own terminology. The twentieth-century tank had an engine, tracks, and a rotating turret. Leonardo’s vehicle was nevertheless an important early concept for an armored, mobile gun platform.