Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramidal parachute around 1485.
His design used a rigid, pyramid-shaped wooden frame covered with linen. Leonardo wrote that a person could descend safely from a great height with such a structure, although the surviving notes do not record a full-size test.
The sketch is one of several Renaissance studies of flight in Leonardo’s notebooks. It is different from his aerial screw, which was a rotating lifting device, and from his ornithopter, which imitated the flapping motion of bird wings.
Modern experiments have tested replicas of the design. In 2000, Adrian Nichols made a successful descent with a larger replica, though he used a separate parachute near the ground for safety. Leonardo’s drawing therefore represents an early parachute concept, not a modern fabric canopy.