Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute in 1485 for descending safely from great heights.
His design used a rigid, pyramid-shaped wooden frame about seven metres high and seven metres wide, covered with tightly stretched linen. Leonardo reasoned that the structure would slow a person's fall by resisting air, although he did not record a practical test of it.
The sketch appears in the Codex Atlanticus, a major collection of Leonardo's drawings and notes. It is usually described as an early parachute concept rather than a working modern parachute, because it had no flexible canopy, harness, or demonstrated flight.
A full-scale replica was built and tested by Adrian Nichols in 2000. Nichols reported that it descended successfully, though he used a modern parachute for safety. Leonardo's design therefore matters chiefly as an early aerodynamic proposal, not as the first operational parachute.