Leonardo da Vinci’s pyramid-shaped emergency aircraft design was intended to be a parachute.
In a manuscript commonly dated to around 1485, Leonardo described a canopy made from linen and supported by a wooden framework. He proposed that a person could descend safely from a great height beneath the structure. The design has a broad pyramidal canopy rather than the rounded fabric shape associated with most modern parachutes.
Leonardo’s proposal was theoretical, and there is no evidence that he tested it himself. Its importance lies in recognizing that a large surface could create enough air resistance to slow a fall. That principle remains central to parachute operation today.
The drawing is sometimes presented as an invention of the modern parachute, but the history is more complicated: earlier cultures had used various forms of descent devices, and practical parachuting developed much later. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale reconstruction based on Leonardo’s design and reported a successful descent, though he used a modern backup parachute for safety.