Which Leonardo da Vinci design uses a pyramid-shaped linen canopy as an early parachute concept?

Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute design uses a pyramid-shaped linen canopy as an early parachute concept.

Leonardo recorded the design around 1485. His sketch shows a rigid pyramid approximately 7.2 metres high and 7.2 metres wide at its base, covered with linen. He wrote that a person could jump from a great height without injury if the device were made in the specified proportions.

The drawing was not a tested parachute, and its heavy wooden frame would make it unlike modern fabric parachutes. In 2000, the British skydiver Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale reconstruction based on Leonardo’s design and reported that it descended successfully, although he used a modern parachute for the final landing for safety.

Leonardo’s parachute should therefore be described as a design or concept, not as the first operational parachute. The modern parachute developed much later, using flexible canopies and suspension lines rather than a rigid pyramid.