What type of armored vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci design with a conical shell and cannons around 1487?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored fighting vehicle with a conical shell and cannons around 1487.

The vehicle appears in a drawing from Leonardo’s notebooks. Its sloping, turtle-like cover was intended to protect soldiers, while guns positioned around the platform could fire in several directions. The design was powered by people turning cranks connected to wheels.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s tank, but that modern label can be misleading. It was not a motorized tank in the modern sense, and there is no evidence that Leonardo’s drawing was built during his lifetime. Historians also note that the gearing shown in the design may have prevented the vehicle from moving as intended unless modified.

Leonardo’s concept belongs to a broader group of Renaissance military-engineering studies. His notebooks include artillery, bridges, fortifications, and other battlefield devices. The armored vehicle is therefore best understood as a proposed war machine rather than a completed invention or the first modern tank.