Leonardo da Vinci’s armored tank was a fortified vehicle with sloped armor and multiple cannons.
Leonardo sketched the fighting vehicle around 1487–1490 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Its conical, turtle-like shell was intended to protect soldiers from enemy fire, while cannons projected through openings around the perimeter. The design included wheels and was meant to move across a battlefield.
The vehicle is often called a “tank,” but that is a modern label. Leonardo did not use that word, and his drawing was a concept rather than a documented working machine. The design also contains a famous mechanical problem: its internal gears, as drawn, would make the wheels turn in opposite directions. Some historians think this may have been deliberate, or simply an error in the sketch.
The armored vehicle was only one part of Leonardo’s military engineering work. His notebooks also contain designs for bridges, artillery, fortifications, and other battlefield devices.