Entertainment

DA VINCI THINK TANK

Leonardo da Vinci had an idea for a travelling fortress — a tank, by any other name — and sketched it out in one of his notebooks.

Now, 500 years later, the Discovery Channel has brought the sketch to life.

“Doing da Vinci” is a new, six-part series beginning later this month that takes a number of the great thinker’s ideas and tries to see if they would really work.

Among the military gadgets da Vinci envisioned were a towering three-story siege ladder and a chariot with scythes to cut down enemy soldiers on either side.

The TV show uses a team of builders, engineers and historians attempting to bring to life the drawings.

The network claims there is no record that any of these contraptions have ever been built before.

The team uses only materials that were available during da Vinci’s lifetime (1452-1519) to construct the devices — including this armored tank with space for a small gun crew and cannons sticking out on all sides.

“Doing da Vinci” premieres April 13.