Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute as a possible means of safely descending from the air in 1485.
His design appears in the Codex Atlanticus and consists of a pyramid-shaped canopy supported by wooden poles. Leonardo wrote that a person could throw themselves from a great height while protected by a linen structure about 12 braccia wide and 12 braccia deep. The braccia was a historical unit whose exact length varied, so modern descriptions usually give approximate dimensions.
The design was not tested in Leonardo’s lifetime, and it was not a practical parachute by modern engineering standards. Its rigid frame would have made deployment and landing difficult. Nevertheless, it shows that Leonardo understood how a large canopy could create air resistance and reduce a falling person’s speed.
A full-scale reconstruction was built and tested by Adrian Nichols in 2000. Nichols used a modern substitute for the original materials and reported that the structure descended successfully, although he left it with a backup parachute for safety. Leonardo’s sketch predates the first modern parachute experiments by centuries.