Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute concept for controlled descent through the air.
His manuscript drawing describes a linen-covered framework forming a pyramid roughly 7.2 metres high and 7.2 metres wide at its base. Leonardo reasoned that a person could descend safely from a great height if the structure trapped enough air, though he did not test the design.
The sketch appears in the Codex Atlanticus and is one of several Leonardo studies of flight and air resistance. The design differs from modern parachutes, which use flexible canopies shaped by airflow and suspension lines. Leonardo’s rigid frame would have been extremely heavy by modern standards.
A 2000 experiment by British skydiver Adrian Nichols used a modified version and reported a successful descent, but the modern test was not proof that Leonardo’s exact historical construction would have been safe. The concept nevertheless anticipated the basic parachute principle: increasing drag to slow a falling body.