Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a parachute, circa 1500. Leonardo was the first person to suggest using a parachute to slow a person's rate of fall. Like many of his projects, the parachute design was never published and the parachute was never actually constructed. After Leonardo's death his notes lay unnoticed in a library until 1796, just a few years after parachutes had been re-invented by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard.