What military vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci sketch with sloped armor and rotating guns?
Answer
An armored tank
Leonardo da Vinci sketched an armored tank with sloped armor and rotating guns.
His fighting vehicle was a covered, conical machine resembling a large turtle. Sloping armor was intended to deflect incoming projectiles, while several light cannons projected through openings around the vehicle. Leonardo’s drawing is usually dated to about 1487–1488.
The vehicle was designed to be moved by people turning internal cranks connected to wheels. Some modern commentators have noted that the gear arrangement shown in the drawing would make the machine difficult or impossible to drive as drawn. This may have been an error, a deliberate safeguard, or an unresolved design problem.
It was never constructed as a working battlefield vehicle. Calling it a “tank” is a modern comparison: the word and the successful tracked armored vehicle belong to much later military history.