Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank with a conical protective shell.
His fighting-vehicle design appears in the Codex Atlanticus and is generally dated to around 1487–1489. The vehicle had a broad, turtle-like body covered with armor and armed with light cannons arranged around its perimeter. Its sloping exterior was intended to deflect incoming projectiles.
Inside, operators would turn cranks connected to wheels. The surviving drawing contains a famous mechanical problem: some interpretations show the gears arranged so that the wheels would rotate in conflicting directions. Historians debate whether this was an intentional safeguard, a drawing error, or an incomplete design.
The vehicle was never built for Renaissance warfare. Its modern nickname, “Leonardo’s tank,” reflects its armored, tracked-vehicle-like appearance rather than a direct technical connection to twentieth-century tanks. The sketch demonstrates Leonardo’s interest in combining armor, mobility, and concentrated firepower.