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— (Inventing Flight: The Centennial Celebration Series #3) —

"The kite and other birds, which beat their wings little, go seeking the course of the wind, and when the wind prevails...they will be seen at a great height." -Leonardo da Vinci

Four hundred years before the Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci explored the possibility of powered flight for the first time. Leonardo studied birds to decipher the mechanics of flight. Birds rely less on their flapping wings, he discovered, than the flow of air currents. They maintain their balance in those undulating winds by subtle movements in their tail and wings. Da Vinci studies how the wings were shaped, how the feathers were distributed, and how different areas of the wing performed during flight.

Da Vinci's creative visions of manned flight were revealed in over 500 sketches. One design proposed a plane in which the pilot flapped the wings. Another illustrated a helicopter in which the pilot spun the blades with a corkscrew. From these early studies, da Vinci concluded that man did not have the strength to power an airplane. Ultimately, Leonardo sketched gliders and designed craft that looked much like future airplanes.

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Inventing Flight: The Centennial Celebration

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