Which Leonardo da Vinci invention is often regarded as the earliest parachute design?

Leonardo da Vinci’s earliest parachute design is the pyramidal parachute. In a manuscript note usually dated around 1485, he proposed a linen canopy stretched over a pyramid-shaped wooden frame, intended to let a person descend safely from a height.

Leonardo reasoned that a broad canopy would resist air and slow a fall. His sketch specifies a frame about seven metres high and wide, although the exact dimensions vary in translations and modern summaries. He did not record a completed test, and the heavy rigid frame would have made the device awkward compared with later fabric parachutes.

The design predates practical parachutes by centuries. In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas built a modern replica and tested it successfully, then used a conventional parachute for safety. Leonardo’s proposal is therefore an important theoretical milestone, not proof that he made a working emergency parachute.