Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored fighting vehicle commonly described as a tank.
The vehicle appears in Leonardo’s notebooks from the late 15th century. It was a conical, turtle-like structure covered with protective plates and fitted with guns around its lower edge. A crew inside would turn cranks to drive the vehicle’s wheels, allowing it to move toward enemy positions while offering substantial protection.
The machine was never built for Renaissance warfare. One famous drawing contains a mechanical inconsistency: its gears appear arranged so that the vehicle would not move as intended. Historians have debated whether this was an error, a deliberate concealment of the design, or simply an incomplete working sketch.
Calling it a tank is a modern classification. The vehicle was not powered by an engine and had no turret or modern armored-hull system. Nevertheless, its combination of armor, mobility, and mounted weapons makes “tank” the standard short description.