The Dream of Flight - Page 1

Introduction

As with the real Leonardo, Holo-Leonardo is pre-occupied with efforts to realise his desire to fly and tells Janeway in [79 Concerning Flight]: "All my life I have wanted to fly. Perhaps my failure to do so has caused my heart to remain in flight, leaping from one thing to another, never satisfied, never complete."

Holo-Leonardo in [79 Concerning Flight]

"Alice" and Tom Paris in [125 Alice]

The idea of being able to fly is one of Man's oldest dreams. There is the ancient Greek myth of engineer-inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus which Tom Paris says is one of his favourite myths in [125 Alice]: "And Daedalus fashioned wings from wax and feathers and used them to escape his prison. ...... But you left out the part where Icarus flew too close to the sun and his wings melted."

The 13th century English philosopher and naturalist Roger Bacon wrote about machines that were apparently capable of flight, and other Italian Renaissance engineers of the 15th and 16th centuries not just Leonardo were captivated by the utopian idea of manned flight. However, it was not until the Montgolfier brothers launched their hot-air balloon in 1783 that manned flight seemed within reach. Mankind's hankering, together with the pioneering spirit to explore the skies and beyond is what has spurred the reach into space......leading to television shows and films such as Star Trek to tap into people's yearnings.

The opening titles for [Enterprise] includes footage of early flights, and one of the images (shown left) has a Leonardo manuscript from the Codex Atlanticus as the background.

The opening titles include the aviation pioneers the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright (respectively 1867-1912 and 1871-1948) the first to successfully develop and test-fly the earliest modern aeroplane, and leads up to the launch of the NX-01 Enterprise starship in the 22nd century.

Featuring Leonardo, in the form of the Holoscenario of his workshop complete with Holo-Leonardo, was inspired for [Voyager], as it connects all those ideas, and ends in a wonderfully upbeat way which is nice for both Star Trek and Leonardo fans. John Rhys-Davies, who plays Holo-Leonardo in both of the [Voyager] episodes that the Maestro appears in namely [68 and 69 Scorpion] and [79 Concerning Flight], said at Creation Entertainment's 12th Annual Grand Slam Star Trek convention on 29th March 2004: "Why, it was great fun," he said. "I believe that Kate (Kate Mulgrew) originated the idea of using either Picasso or da Vinci on the show. I was lucky that they chose Leonardo!" Whoever originated the idea, thank you!

On to information about Leonardo's various flying machines:

The glider-style machine which is seen in [79 Concerning Flight]. The Aerial Screw which is seen in the corner by the window of the holographic workshop though not mentioned in most of the [Voyager] Da Vinci episodes. Other flying machine designs by Leonardo.

Aerial Screw

As with the rest of the Da Vinci site section, this article is tailored to the Da Vinci episodes in [Voyager]. It is not intended to be a complete report on Leonardo's flying machines.

Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site