Leonardo da Vinci designed a diving suit for underwater breathing and exploration.
His late-15th-century concept included a leather suit, a mask, and tubes leading upward to the surface. The tubes were intended to carry air to the diver, while the suit helped protect the body from cold water. The design is often associated with Leonardo’s interest in military engineering and underwater sabotage.
The concept was not a modern scuba outfit. It depended on air at the surface and lacked the compact pressurized cylinders used by contemporary divers. Some accounts also connect the design with a floating air chamber or breathing apparatus, but surviving drawings and later reconstructions vary.
Leonardo did not build a documented working diving suit. Its importance lies in showing how he applied observation, anatomy, and mechanical design to a practical underwater problem centuries before reliable diving equipment became available.