Leonardo da Vinci sketched a tank as a covered, cone-shaped fighting machine powered by people turning cranks.
The design appears in Leonardo’s notebooks from around 1487–1489. Its sloping wooden shell was intended to deflect enemy fire, and the vehicle carried several small cannons around its perimeter. Leonardo imagined it moving across a battlefield while protecting the crew inside.
The vehicle was not a modern tank and was never built or used in battle during Leonardo’s lifetime. It was a conceptual armored vehicle, driven by internal gears and human power. A frequently repeated story says the design contained a deliberate gear error to prevent others from using it, but historians debate whether the apparent problem resulted from Leonardo’s drawing methods or a genuine mistake.
The word “tank” belongs to twentieth-century armored warfare; Leonardo’s machine is called a tank because its protective form and battlefield purpose resemble later armored vehicles.