What name is commonly given to Leonardo da Vinci’s armored, wagon-like fighting vehicle?

Leonardo da Vinci’s armored, wagon-like fighting vehicle is commonly called Leonardo’s tank.

Leonardo designed the vehicle around 1487–1489 while working for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. His drawings show a conical, turtle-like cover strengthened by metal plates and powered by people turning cranks connected to wheels. The vehicle was intended to approach enemy positions while protecting its crew from weapons fire.

The design is often called a tank, but that modern term did not exist in Renaissance Italy. It was a proposed armored fighting vehicle, not a proven battlefield machine. Historians and engineers have also noted that the surviving drawing appears to contain a gearing problem: the wheels would turn in conflicting directions unless the mechanism were corrected.

Leonardo’s design predates modern tanks by more than four centuries. Unlike twentieth-century tanks, it had no engine, turret, tracks, or demonstrated armor-testing record. It is best understood as an inventive military concept preserved in Leonardo’s notebooks.