Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored vehicle with two large wheels and a covered fighting compartment.
The machine is often called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle or tank. His drawing, produced around 1487, shows a conical wooden cover strengthened by metal plates. The vehicle was intended to protect soldiers inside while they operated weapons positioned around its perimeter. It also included space for people to turn cranks connected to the wheels.
The design was never built for Renaissance warfare. Some versions of the drawing appear to contain a gearing problem that would make the vehicle move backward rather than forward, although scholars disagree about whether that was deliberate, accidental, or related to the drawing’s presentation.
Leonardo developed the concept while seeking military employment under Ludovico Sforza in Milan. It was not a modern tank: it had no engine, tracks, turret, or cannon. Its historical importance lies in combining armor, mobility, and all-around firepower in one proposed machine.