Leonardo da Vinci's fighting vehicle also known as Da Vinci's Tank is one of the conceptions of the revered Italian polymath and artist Leonardo da Vinci. [1]
Leonardo da Vinci's fighting vehicle also known as Da Vinci's Tank is one of the conceptions of the revered Italian polymath and artist Leonardo da Vinci. [1]
The concept was designed while Leonardo da Vinci was under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza in 1487. [2] Sometimes described as a prototype of modern tanks, Leonardo's armored vehicle represented a conical cover inspired by a turtle's shell. The covering was to be made of wood and reinforced with metal plates. Slanting angles would deflect enemy fire, similar to Sloped armour today. The machine was powered by two large cranks operated internally by four strong men. The vehicle was equipped with an array of light cannons, placed around the perimeter. [3]
The gears of the design were located in a reversed order, making the vehicle unworkable. This is thought by some sources[ who? ] to have been a deliberate mistake by Leonardo as a form of security, in case his design was stolen and used irresponsibly. However it's almost impossible to fix this problem successfully without taking away power from its forward movement and strength. Regardless, the vehicle would have been too heavy to move and would have lacked the battlefield mobility seen in modern tanks that make them so effective. [4]
The armored vehicle was designed to intimidate the enemy rather than to be used as a serious military weapon. Due to the vehicle's impressive size, it would not be capable of moving on rugged terrain. The project could hardly be applied and realized in the 15th century. [5]
Around 2010, a group of engineers recreated Leonardo's vehicle, based on the original design, and fixed the mistake in gearing. [6]
An armoured fighting vehicle or armored fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured cars, assault guns, self-propelled artilleries, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and armoured personnel carriers (APC).
A military armoredcar is a wheeled armored fighting vehicle, historically employed for reconnaissance, internal security, armed escort, and other subordinate battlefield tasks. With the gradual decline of mounted cavalry, armored cars were developed for carrying out duties formerly assigned to light cavalry. Following the invention of the tank, the armored car remained popular due to its faster speed, comparatively simple maintenance and low production cost. It also found favor with several colonial armies as a cheaper weapon for use in underdeveloped regions. During World War II, most armored cars were engineered for reconnaissance and passive observation, while others were devoted to communications tasks. Some equipped with heavier armament could even substitute for tracked combat vehicles in favorable conditions—such as pursuit or flanking maneuvers during the North African campaign.
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Armoured warfare or armored warfare, is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern methods of war. The premise of armoured warfare rests on the ability of troops to penetrate conventional defensive lines through use of manoeuvre by armoured units.
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Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath, regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. While most famous for his paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, Leonardo is also renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics, pyrotechnics, and zoology.
A light tank is a tank variant initially designed for rapid movements in and out of combat, to outmaneuver heavier tanks. It is smaller in size with thinner armor and a less powerful main gun, tailored for better tactical mobility and ease of transport and logistics. They are primarily employed in the screening, armored reconnaissance, skirmishing, artillery observation, and supplementing landing operations in a fire support role of expeditionary forces where larger, heavier tanks are unavailable or have difficulties operating safely or efficiently.
Leonardo's crossbow designs are a series of shooting weapon schematics designed by Leonardo da Vinci that are in the Codex Atlanticus. One version, a self-spanning infantry weapon called the Rapid Fire Crossbow, is found on sheets 143r, 153r, and 155r. The other is the Giant Crossbow design intended to be a mounted siege weapon found on sheet 149a in the Codex.
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