Leonardo da Vinci specified linen cloth for the canopy of his parachute design.
Around 1485, Leonardo sketched a pyramid-shaped parachute supported by a rigid frame. His notes described a structure made from wooden poles and covered with linen cloth. The broad canopy was intended to catch air and slow a person’s descent.
Leonardo’s design was not tested during his lifetime, so it was a theoretical invention rather than a demonstrated working parachute. Its pyramid shape also differs from the round canopies used in many modern parachutes.
The design is sometimes called the first parachute concept, but Leonardo was not the first person to imagine controlled descent through the air. Earlier traditions and later inventors contributed to the broader history of parachuting.