Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute in 1485 as a pyramid-shaped canopy for safely descending from a height.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus. It used a large linen canopy stretched over a wooden pyramid-like frame. Leonardo reasoned that the structure would slow a person's fall by creating air resistance.
The drawing was not a practical parachute in the modern sense: it included no harness, suspension lines, or tested deployment system comparable to later equipment. It nevertheless shows Leonardo applying observation and geometry to a problem of controlled descent.
A modern parachute works with flexible fabric, lines, and a harness, while Leonardo's proposed canopy was rigidly supported. In 2000, Adrian Nicholas tested a full-size reconstruction and reported that it descended successfully, although he used a modern parachute for the final part of the landing.