Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute with a pyramid-shaped canopy.
Around 1485, Leonardo described a structure made from linen held open by a framework of wooden poles. He estimated that a person could descend safely from a great height using it. His design was not a modern round parachute: its rigid, pyramid-like form was intended to create resistance against falling air.
Leonardo was studying birds, air currents, and mechanical flight in the same period. His parachute concept belongs to his notebooks, which combined practical engineering proposals with observations of nature. The surviving drawing and notes are the main evidence for the design; Leonardo did not build and test it.
The idea is often called the first parachute design, but it should not be confused with a documented successful flight. Modern parachutes use flexible canopies, suspension lines, and harnesses, all of which differ substantially from Leonardo’s proposed apparatus.