Leonardo da Vinci’s conical armored military machine is known as the armored vehicle.
Leonardo designed it in the late 15th century as a mobile platform for soldiers and guns. The vehicle had a broad, conical protective shell with cannon openings around its perimeter. Inside, men were expected to turn cranks connected to wheels, moving the machine across a battlefield.
The design is often nicknamed Leonardo’s tank because its shape and intended battlefield role resemble a modern tank. It was not, however, a tank in the modern technical sense: it had no engine, turret, tracked suspension, or practical armor system tested in combat.
A famous drawing contains a mechanical problem: the gearing appears to be arranged so that the wheels would oppose one another. Historians debate whether this was an error, a deliberate concealment, or a feature of an incomplete design. Modern replicas have modified the gearing to make the vehicle move.