Leonardo da Vinci’s armored fighting vehicle resembles a tank.
Leonardo designed the vehicle around 1487 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. It was a conical, turtle-like structure covered with armor plates and equipped with weapons around its perimeter. Inside, men would turn cranks connected to wheels to move the vehicle.
The design is commonly called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle, or Leonardo’s tank. It was not a modern tank: it had no engine, turret, radio, or standardized military production. Its intended mobility was also questionable. A well-known drawing appears to contain a gearing problem that would make the vehicle move backward if built exactly as shown. Some historians think the error may have been deliberate, because Leonardo could have used it to conceal the design.
The vehicle illustrates Leonardo’s combination of mechanics, fortification, and military engineering. It was never constructed for a Renaissance battlefield, but later reconstructions have demonstrated that modified versions can move.