Leonardo da Vinci’s tank was an armored fighting vehicle designed with a conical, turtle-like body.
Leonardo sketched the vehicle in the 1480s while working for Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Its sloped armor was intended to deflect enemy projectiles, and the platform carried guns around its perimeter. The machine was to be moved by wheels connected to internal cranks operated by people inside.
It was a design study rather than a completed Renaissance tank. Some modern discussions point out that the crank arrangement in the surviving drawing would make the vehicle move in the wrong direction unless corrected. Historians disagree about whether this was an error, a deliberate concealment, or simply an unrefined design.
The machine is often called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle. It should not be confused with later tanks, which depended on engines, tracks, and industrial manufacturing.