What type of vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci design for soldiers to use in battle?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored tank as a battle vehicle for soldiers.

The machine appears in a drawing from about 1487–1489. It resembles a covered, conical vehicle with sloping armor and several guns projecting around its lower edge. Inside, men were intended to turn cranks connected to wheels, moving the vehicle across the ground while shielding its occupants from attack.

Leonardo’s fighting vehicle was never built for a battlefield. Its armor was meant to deflect projectiles, while its broad shape offered a platform for multiple cannons. Some modern reconstructions have noted that the surviving drawing contains a likely gearing inconsistency that would prevent the wheels from turning as shown.

Calling it a “tank” is a modern comparison. The machine was not a twentieth-century tracked tank, but an armored wheeled fighting vehicle imagined more than four centuries earlier.