Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank with conical armor and several cannons.
His late-15th-century design showed a large, turtle-shaped vehicle covered by angled metal plates. The sloping surfaces were intended to deflect enemy fire, while cannons projected through openings around the vehicle. The machine was to be moved by people turning cranks connected to its wheels.
The design is often called Leonardo’s tank, but it was never built as a functioning Renaissance battlefield vehicle. A commonly repeated story says the crank system was deliberately drawn incorrectly, perhaps to prevent others from using the design or because of a mechanical error. Historians cannot establish Leonardo’s intention with certainty.
The vehicle was not a modern engine-powered tank. It had no internal-combustion engine, tracks, or turret. Its importance lies in combining mobile artillery, protective armor, and mechanical propulsion in one unusually ambitious concept.