Leonardo da Vinci described a parachute as a conical cloth canopy for slowing a person’s descent.
In the Codex Atlanticus, Leonardo sketched a pyramid-shaped canopy supported by a wooden frame. He wrote that a person could jump from a great height while protected by a structure about 12 braccia wide and 12 braccia deep. The braccio was a historical Italian unit, so the exact modern conversion varies, but the design was clearly intended to create drag and reduce falling speed.
Leonardo did not record a successful test of this parachute. The sketch therefore represents an early theoretical parachute design rather than a proven invention. Its rigid frame also made it very different from the flexible parachutes used today.
In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawing. The test demonstrated that the design could descend, although Nicholas used a modern parachute for the final landing.