Leonardo da Vinci’s 1487 armored vehicle most closely resembles a tank.
Leonardo designed a conical, armored fighting vehicle with sloping protective plates and numerous light cannons around its lower edge. The structure was intended to protect soldiers while allowing them to fire outward. Inside, men would turn cranks connected to wheels, theoretically moving the vehicle across a battlefield.
The design is often called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle or Leonardo’s tank. It was never built for Renaissance warfare, and the surviving drawing contains a mechanical problem: the suggested gear arrangement would make the wheels turn in opposite directions. Some historians think this may have been an intentional error that kept the design from being easily copied.
It would not have been a modern tank in the technical sense. It lacked an engine, a turret, and a practical suspension system. Nevertheless, its armored shell, internal crew space, and mobile weapons make “tank” the familiar modern comparison. The drawing shows Leonardo applying engineering to military technology.