What name is given to Leonardo da Vinci’s war vehicle fitted with rotating blades?

Leonardo da Vinci’s bladed war vehicle is commonly called a scythed chariot.

His concept showed a horse-drawn chariot equipped with rotating blades extending from its sides. The blades were intended to strike troops near the vehicle as it moved across a battlefield. Leonardo included the design among his studies of military engineering, although there is no evidence that he built or tested it.

The idea belongs to a much older family of weapons. Ancient Persian armies used scythed chariots, and Leonardo’s drawing adapted that general concept with a mechanical transmission connected to the chariot’s movement. That detail makes the design particularly notable as an engineering proposal rather than merely a decorated cart.

A scythed chariot is not the same as Leonardo’s armored vehicle, later called a tank. The tank concept emphasized protection and battlefield movement; the scythed chariot emphasized rotating cutting blades.