What Leonardo da Vinci weapon featured rotating blades on a chariot?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a scythed chariot, a vehicle fitted with rotating blades.

Leonardo’s drawing shows a horse-drawn chariot with long blades mounted on a rotating mechanism. As the chariot moved, the blades were intended to sweep around the vehicle and cut down enemy soldiers or disrupt formations. The concept belongs to his late-15th-century military engineering studies.

The idea was not entirely new. Scythed chariots had been used in the ancient world, especially by Persian armies, and Leonardo was reviving and mechanically elaborating an older weapon concept. His version added a more complex rotating arrangement rather than simply fixing blades to the wheels.

The chariot was never established as a practical Renaissance battlefield weapon. Its dangers included difficulty controlling the horses, risks to friendly troops, and the possibility that the mechanism could injure its own operators. It is best understood as a design study rather than a proven invention.