What parachute design did Leonardo da Vinci sketch in the late 15th century?

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramidal parachute design in the late 15th century.

His drawing shows a rigid, pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen cloth. Leonardo proposed that a person could descend safely from a great height inside this canopy, anticipating the basic idea of using air resistance to slow a fall.

The design appeared in the Codex Atlanticus, a large collection of Leonardo’s notes and drawings. It was not a modern parachute: its wooden structure would have been heavy, and there is no firm evidence that Leonardo built or tested it.

Modern experiments have examined whether the concept could work. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas tested a reconstruction, while later tests used a lighter version because the original structure could be unstable. Leonardo’s design is often remembered as an early parachute concept, not as the first operational parachute.