Leonardo da Vinci’s fall-slowing design was a parachute.
Leonardo described a pyramid-shaped frame about 7.2 metres wide and 7.2 metres high, covered with linen. He wrote that a person could jump from a great height while enclosed by the structure and land safely, provided the canopy was properly made.
The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus and is one of the best-known examples of Leonardo applying geometry and observation to a practical problem. It was not a modern fabric parachute: the rigid wooden frame would have made it heavy and difficult to control.
A full-size replica was tested in 2000 by Adrian Nicholas, who reported that it descended successfully. He later released a lighter replica because of concerns about the original’s weight during landing. Leonardo’s design therefore predates practical parachuting by several centuries, while remaining an untested Renaissance proposal in its original form.