Leonardo da Vinci’s pyramid-shaped canopy design for slowing a person’s fall is a parachute.
Leonardo included the design in the Codex Atlanticus, dating it to about 1485. His drawing shows a rigid, pyramid-shaped cloth canopy supported by wooden poles. He wrote that a person could jump from a considerable height while using the device without injury, provided the structure was sufficiently wide and deep.
The design was not tested in Leonardo’s lifetime, and it differs from modern parachutes, which usually use flexible, rounded or ram-air canopies. Its significance lies in recognizing that a broad surface can create air resistance and reduce falling speed.
In 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas tested a full-scale replica based on Leonardo’s drawing. The replica descended successfully, although Nicholas used a modern parachute for safety. Leonardo’s design is therefore an early recorded parachute concept, not the first modern parachute.