Leonardo da Vinci’s fighting vehicle is often described as an early tank.
His design shows a large, conical, armored vehicle with sloping plates intended to deflect incoming weapons. It was planned to carry a crew inside and use multiple light cannons arranged around its perimeter. The vehicle would have moved through the turning of cranks connected to wheels, although the surviving design has a mechanical issue that would prevent the wheels from working as drawn.
The machine was a proposal rather than a documented battlefield vehicle. Some popular accounts say Leonardo deliberately included a flaw to hide the idea from military patrons, but historians cannot establish that motive with certainty. The design’s resemblance to a modern tank comes mainly from its armor, enclosed crew space, and cannon armament.
Leonardo’s fighting vehicle illustrates how Renaissance engineers combined protection, mobility, and artillery in a single military concept.