Whether lying horizontally or standing in an upright position, the pilot would have operated the machines using pedals and levers – very much relying on their physical strength to get off the ground and stay airborne.Ī modern incarnation of Leonardo’s self-supporting bridge, constructed in Denmark. Typically, the contraptions he drew were ‘ornithopters’, with membrane-covered wings designed to flap up and down. However, concepts for so-called flying machines were sketched throughout Leonardo’s career. Towards the end of his life, the polymath gathered his thoughts on the topic in a text known as the Codice sul volo degli uccelli (‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’), written around 1505–06. By studying the anatomy of birds, he hoped to build a machine that would one day allow humans to join them in the skies. OrnithoptersĪmong his numerous scientific interests, Leonardo harboured a particular obsession with flight. In this article we delve into Leonardo’s notes and pick out 10 of his most impressive inventions and feats of engineering – some of which foreshadow innovations of more recent times. It’s something of an understatement to say that Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a ‘genius’.Īs well as being responsible for world-famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, the Renaissance man was also a highly talented anatomist, zoologist, geologist, mathematician and military engineer (to name but a few), whose insatiable curiosity about the world around him knew no bounds.ĭuring the course of his life – from his early days in Florence, right through to his final years in France – the polymath sketched out ideas and recorded scientific investigations on thousands of sheets of paper, gathered today in volumes known as codices.
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