Leonardo da Vinci sketched a pyramid-shaped parachute as a device for descending safely from a height.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of his notes and drawings. It consists of a rigid wooden frame covered with linen, forming an inverted pyramid. Leonardo wrote that a person could jump from a great height while enclosed in the structure without injury.
The sketch was not a practical parachute tested in Leonardo’s lifetime. Its large, rigid canopy differs from modern fabric parachutes, which use flexible cloth and suspension lines. Leonardo’s idea nevertheless shows that he understood the central principle: air resistance can slow a falling body.
Modern parachutes developed much later, with important experiments and designs appearing in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 2000, Adrian Nichols built and tested a full-scale version of Leonardo’s design, although he descended using a modern parachute for safety near the ground.