When one considers time and place Leonardo's genius begins to be not only impressive, but completely amazing.
Leonardo da Vinci designed a screw like device which he said if turned at a sufficient speed would rise into the air. The screw is as old as Archimedes who applied it for lifting water, but Leonardo was the first to apply this principle to air. This device is the earliest known forerunner of both the helicopter, and the screw propeller.
Leonardo's most elaborate flying machine included a somewhat streamlined cabin in which two men could be seated with one operating each wing. The machinery is an elaborate set of screws and cranks, and has an amazing degree of sophistication, although, of course, it did not fly.
Leonardo also attempted to copy the wing of a bird in a fully articulated mechanical wing. The joints of the wings have springs to return them to their gliding position after flapping. He clearly gave much thought to this design, and it is perhaps the most anatomically birdlike flying machine ever designed.
He also designed aircraft with tail sections, this is a critical thing in aviation for stability, although the Wright brothers put their stabilizer in front of their bi-plane, Leonardo anticipated the more common later design by adding a tail section to his wings. The drawing of his winged craft are mostly just single wings, although models built from his drawings look very much like modern airplanes
He also devised a glider with the interior half of its wings fixed, and the outer half movable. He had noted from the flight of birds that the portion of the wing closest to the body did not move much, and that the outter portion of the wing moved both for propulsion and to control flight. This idea would remain important as late as the work of Otto Lilienthal who wrote expressing the same belief. Lilienthal intended to employ this principle in the ornithopter he was working on when he fell to his death from one of his hang gliders.
Related Articles
Also visit my Transportation History Homepage
