Leonardo da Vinci’s 1485 pyramid-shaped design was a parachute.
Leonardo described a linen cloth stretched over a wooden frame, forming a pyramid about 7.2 metres wide and 7.2 metres high. He wrote that a person could jump from a great height while holding it and land safely. The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a major collection of his notes and drawings.
Leonardo did not build the parachute, and his proposal predates the first practical parachutes by centuries. In 2000, the British adventurer Adrian Nichols tested a modern replica based on the drawing, using modern materials and safety equipment. The replica descended successfully, although Nichols changed to a conventional parachute at low altitude because of concerns about landing control.
The design is often confused with Leonardo’s other studies of flight, including the ornithopter and the aerial screw. Unlike those machines, the pyramid parachute was intended to slow a descent rather than create powered or flapping flight.