Leonardo da Vinci’s armored vehicle, designed to approach enemies behind sloping plates, was his fighting vehicle.
Leonardo drew the machine around 1487–1490 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Its conical covering resembled a tortoise shell and was intended to deflect incoming weapons. The vehicle was to be moved by several men turning internal cranks connected to wheels.
The drawing is often called Leonardo’s tank, but that modern label can be misleading. It had no engine, and its design had a mechanical problem: the gearing as commonly reconstructed would make the wheels turn in conflicting directions. Some historians think this may have been deliberate, because Leonardo also presented the machine as a military proposal.
The vehicle was never built for Renaissance warfare. It remains one of Leonardo’s best-known studies of armored transport.