Leonardo da Vinci’s “Flying Machine”

The year 3000 is very far away so it is hard to assume what daily life would look like, however it is likely that you could say that daily life would still be largely influenced by the inventions and discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci thousands of years prior. Most of da Vinci’s inventions were flying machines of some sort, weather it be his aerial screw representing modern day helicopters or his “flying machine” which represented a modern day plane.

My personal favorite invention of Leonardo da Vinci’s is his famous “Flying Machine” while it was never actually build experts at the european museum of history and science say it would have flown. Plans to build the machine have been made but were abandoned due to budget cuts. This flying machine used a wing or bird like flight pattern to sustain flight, flapping its wings to gain lift and using a tail like rudder to steer. The flapping motion of the wings was generated by the pilots legs pedaling a set of gears as he flew. Most people were very skeptical about this design saying one man could not generate the lift required to fly. Studies done by the european museum say this was actually possible however it would not be able to take off and would require a catapult system, but once in flight it would be able to sustain flight. The aerodynamics of this plane were anything but efficient but the small body design allowed for extremely little drag, over 80% of which was from the surface area of the pilot, to reduce this to 20% the pilot was moved into a horizontal position reducing body drag by 60%.

Leonardo was also an amazing painter, his painting, the Mona Lisa, is one of the most famous paintings of all time. Using his knowledge from anatomy and sciences, he learned to perfect the muscles in human portraits. Leonardo loved both art and science, using both to his advantage. Also known as the Renaissance Man, Da Vinci was a writer, inventor and an artist. He was known to get bored of his work and move on to study something else causing him to only finish a few of his paintings. Despite Leonardo Da Vinci’s anxious nature, he still remains one of the most profound artists in history. Leonardo Da Vinci’s childhood was very shallow. Leonardo got his name because he was “Leonardo from Vinci,” being born in the little town of Vinci near Florence. He was born on April 15, 1452. Biography.com states that he was born to a father that was a notary, but the British Library claims that his father was a lawyer. Aside from this controversy, both say that his mother was a young, peasant country girl. Da Vinci’s parents were never married so they ended up splitting up at a young age. This is the cause for Leonardo to have 17 half brothers and half sisters.

Leonardo was raised during the italian Renaissance, this was a wonderful time of growth and rebirth in Italy that started in the 14th century. Many famous and talented artists were at their peak during this time, including painters such as Michelangelo and Donatello. Few, though, earned the title of “Renaissance Man”, meaning a person with many talents or areas of knowledge. One of these few is Leonardo da Vinci, famous for his beautiful paintings, amazing sketches, and fascinating studies. Leonardo da Vinci’s studies in the fields of science and art helped advance modern day society in an interesting way. The fields of art and science fascinated Leonardo, and he brought the two together in a way that captivated many since his death. He explored these topics with great curiosity and interest, and in his time encountered many amazing ideas, which he exchanged through his writings and sketches.