Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramidal parachute to slow a person's fall. He sketched the idea around 1485 in the Codex Atlanticus, describing a linen canopy stretched over a wooden frame.
The design was not a modern packable parachute. Its rigid pyramid shape was intended to trap air and create resistance, allowing a person to descend safely from a height. Leonardo calculated that a canopy roughly 12 braccia wide and 12 braccia deep could work, although the exact historical measurement of a braccio varied.
Leonardo did not test the device, and parachuting developed much later. In 2000, British adventurer Adrian Nichols built and successfully tested a version based on Leonardo's drawing, using modern materials and safety equipment.
The sketch is often called an early parachute concept rather than proof that Leonardo invented practical skydiving. Its importance lies in showing an unusually clear understanding of air resistance centuries before controlled parachutes became workable.