Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramid-shaped parachute in 1485 as a proposed device for descending safely from the air.
His design used a rigid, pyramidal wooden frame covered with linen cloth. Leonardo estimated that a structure about 7.2 metres wide and 7.2 metres high could support a person during a descent. The drawing appears in the Codex Atlanticus, one of the largest surviving collections of his notes.
Leonardo did not build or test the parachute, so it was a theoretical design rather than a demonstrated invention. The modern parachute developed much later, using flexible canopies and suspension lines rather than Leonardo’s fixed pyramid.
The design is sometimes described as the first recorded parachute concept, but it should not be confused with Leonardo’s separate flying-machine studies, including the ornithopter and aerial screw. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nichols built and tested a replica based on Leonardo’s sketch.