Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute for controlled descent from the air.
He described the design in the Codex Atlanticus around 1485. It consisted of a rigid wooden frame covered with linen cloth. Leonardo estimated that a person could jump from a great height while remaining protected by the canopy.
The design was not a modern parachute: it had no harness, suspension lines, or flexible canopy. Its pyramid shape was intended to catch air and slow the fall. In 2000, Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawing and reported that it worked, although he used a modern backup parachute for safety.
Leonardo’s design is often called the first detailed parachute concept, but parachuting technology developed much later through experiments by inventors such as Louis-Sébastien Lenormand and André-Jacques Garnerin.