What parachute design did Leonardo da Vinci sketch as a pyramid-shaped frame covered with cloth?

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramidal parachute as a pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen cloth.

The design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, where Leonardo proposed a structure about 7.2 metres high and 7.2 metres wide. He reasoned that the cloth canopy would trap air and slow a person’s descent, although he did not record a human test of the device.

Leonardo’s sketch predates the first documented parachute descent by centuries. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nichols constructed a modern version of the design and successfully tested it, though he used a safer parachute for the actual landing. The experiment suggested that the concept could work, but the original dimensions would make the apparatus extremely heavy.

The pyramidal parachute is often confused with Leonardo’s flying-machine sketches. It was not intended to fly horizontally; its purpose was controlled descent. The familiar round parachute developed much later from different experimental traditions.