Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank with sloped armor and room for soldiers inside.
His drawing, usually dated to around 1487–1489, shows a conical covered vehicle resembling a turtle shell. Cannons project through openings around its perimeter, allowing the crew to fire in several directions while protected by armor. The vehicle was intended to move across a battlefield and disrupt enemy formations.
The design is powered by a system of cranks and gears connected to wheels. A well-known problem is that the drawing’s gears appear to be arranged so the vehicle would move backward rather than forward. Historians debate whether this was a deliberate hidden error, a drafting mistake, or simply an unresolved engineering problem.
Leonardo’s machine was never built as a working Renaissance combat vehicle. Modern replicas demonstrate the concept, but calling it the first modern tank can be misleading because twentieth-century tanks used engines, tracks, and military doctrines unavailable to Leonardo.