The Dream of Flight - Page 5

The mix of Leonardo designs for the Holo-Leonardo's machine

The hang-glider style of machine which Holo-Leonardo and Janeway fly to escape in [79 Concerning Flight] is based largely upon a mix of three Leonardo's designs.

But before I present information about those three designs, let me discuss and dismiss the following:

In [75 Scientific Method], screenshot shown far left, the wing is seen of either an improved or different flying machine design. Possibly it could be part of Leonardo's design shown left, but I doubt it as I do not believe the writers and producers of the show intended any close inspection or analogies to be made, as it is simply there to infer Leonardo's continuing interest in flying machines.

Next follows a discussion of the three Leonardo flying machine designs which Holo-Leonardo incorporates into his successful design. One should remember that Holo-Leonardo is also successful because he utilises 24th century sturdy and lightweight materials, such as duranium alloy, which he obtained during his stay on Tau's planet.

1. The "ornitottero prono" -glider with maneuverable tips, pilot lying prone

The design dates from c.1488-89. Folio 74v of Manuscript B of the Codex Atlanticus. The wings in this design, i.e. the two at the front and one at the rear, contribute to Holo-Leonardo's design.

the "ornitottero prono" in [68 and 69 Scorpion]

the "ornitottero prono" in [74 The Raven]

in [79 Concerning Flight, Holo-Leonardo's second design omits the pilot lying prone element and adds a hang-gliding style section, and that addition is discussed under paragraph "2. Hang-glider" below

This Leonardo design is often described nowadays as a "glider with maneuverable wing tips" in order to distinguish it from the other Leonardo flying machine designs, but as the pilot was intended to lie prone I like to use the term "ornitottero prono" - partly because the design is not really a glider but strictly speaking an ornithopter as the wings were meant to flap, partly because the "prono" indicates a clear distinguishing feature from other Leonardo designs, and partly because I like the alliterative "t" and "o" sounds in the Italian term which is the design type designation for it as used by The Da Vinci Store.

The model which Janeway is holding is, I believe, actually the one available to purchase at The Da Vinci Store, see Sources, called "il volo instrumentale" (flying machine), type "ornitottero prono". The model kit design copyright is 1995 and belongs to designer Robert Charles Coyle and the Imagination Factory's Da Vinci Division.

The model that Janeway holds differs from the full-size machine which she and Holo-Leonardo escape on, in that Leonardo's model is designed for a single person lying prone. With Leonardo's design, the pilot lies prone with their feet hanging down in stirrups, and manipulating the wings via cables connected to stirrup-style handles. I quote (edited) the explanation of Jason Goodman (for whom, see below) for the model that Janeway holds (he is not specifically describing the model she holds but the model kit sold by The Da Vinci Store, although the show used the same model it cannot have bought it from The Da Vinci Store as that store did not add it to its catalogue until much later): "The main "flapping" action is performed by the pale horizontal spars which cross at the top of the curved yoke at the front. The pivots for the wing-spars, seen in the center of the frame, have an enclosed ball-and-socket joint which allows a greater range of movement. The pedal cables pass over the pulleys mounted at each end of the pale transverse spar, and pull the wing-spars up and down. The push-rods inboard of them are controlled by the handles. Note that there's no mechanism for steering the flying machine, except by shifting one's weight. The wing is built in two parts, with a hinged elbow at the fourth rib. A wooden leaf spring tries to flatten the wing at the hing point, but it is restrained by a set of cables which hold wing in an arched position. The ribs are made by cold-molding a pair of thin, flat spars onto a curved form, and then smoothing and shaping. Thankfully, all the ribs are made from the same curved form." Jason Goodman has used mesh to cover the wings but Holo-Leonardo used a kind of canvas fabric as indeed Leonardo would have done, possibly the same as that used to cover the "wings" of the Aerial Screw.

port-side view of the "ornitottero prono", The Da Vinci Store model

By contrast, with the machine on which Janeway and Holo-Leonardo escape, both of them on the one machine, and their position is certainly not prone but sitting. In addition, the wings do not seem to be articulated and therefore would be incapable of being manipulated, so that attempts to steer it would have to be by the pilot shifting their weight. Television viewers are required to surmise that the model is only one that Holo-Leonardo has been working on, even though references throughout the episode (and indeed any references which occur in the other Da Vinci episodes), including references by Holo-Leonardo himself, are as if there is only one single flying machine design.

However, that Holo-Leonardo's full-size design differs in certain respects from Leonardo's single prone pilot design, it is a matter of degree and I do not believe the amount of difference matters in that it does not cause a problem as regards enjoying the episode. It is actually a shrewd solution to an inescapeable problem, as follows. One of the problems with envisioning any of Leonardo's flying machines is that although analyses and drawings of parts of a variety of flying machines (fixed wing designs and ones for maneuverable or flapping wings) are found throughout Leonardo's notebooks, he did not draw a complete schematic for any single flying machine. The designer of "il volo instrumentale" which is available for purchase at The Da Vinci Store believes that the Maestro did not construct a model or even full-size prototype, and the model kit has had to be based on Leonardo's designs. I am sure that the [Voyager] production staff utilised a purchased model so as to sensibly save themselves the time and effort of having to make one since television production has time pressures and is time-critical (the cost of a purchased model would have been negligible). Of course, unless the manufacturers kindly shipped them a model already made up from the kit, it would have taken some man-hours to put together. However, it would have cost less to have a junior member of staff put the kit together for the show rather than take up the time of a senior model designer to design and build one from scratch (plus since Leonardo did not produce a full schematic the [Voyager] model designer would end up doing much of the same work as Robert Charles Coyle and co. While The Da Vinci Store states "Build Time - Approx. 25 hrs. Level - Intermediate/Senior (ages 15+)" even people who often put together model kits (as in my household) know that the manufacturer's stated build time will probably be exceeded. Jason Goodman (see Sources) presents an excellent website of pictures showing the finished model as per how he put the model kit together, and says: "I spent roughly 20 evenings working on the model, scattered over a year and a half."

view from top and from aft of the "ornitottero prono", The Da Vinci Store model

Whether or not intentional by the producers and/or director of [79 Concerning Flight], close inspection of Holo-Leonardo's glider by fans is avoided (or mostly avoided) because the whole prop is not seen in entirety close-up. That means fans and/or Leonardo fans cannot really ascertain how closely the prop conforms to Leonardo's various designs. The whole prop is seen upon launch using a camera angle looking up at the machine only. The whole prop is seen in its entirety only once in flight and from above and behind, making it impossible to see detail. The entire prop in flight might be computer-generated as there are tiny artifacts visible around the glider on the raw screenshots which may be accounted for by a not quite perfect graphics matching.

[79 Concerning Flight]

Holo-Leonardo: "I have even resurrected my Great Bird like the Phoenix of legend. They have materials here, Catarina, that are so strong and so light that surely my prototype will ascend to the heavens."

The scriptwriters and producers of [79 Concerning Flight] were shrewd in utilising Leonardo's glider-style machine. It is the only one of Leonardo's designs that has a realistic chance of succeeding in attaining the air. Leonardo himself realised the almost insurmountable problems involved in accomplishing the great dream of flying with man-powered machines, not least the heaviness of the available materials (canvas, wood etc.), such that the Maestro started to study gliding flight. In the glider designed by him, the flier's position is meant to balance himself by adequately moving the lower part of his body. The wings, which are an imitation of the wings of bats and of large birds (see Leonardo quote above), are fixed in their innermost section (closest to the person) and mobile in their outer section notably the tips which can be flexed by the pilot via a control cable maneuvered through stirrup-style handles. Leonardo developed this solution after studying the physical structure of birds' wings from which he observed that the inner part of their wings moved more slowly than the outer part and that, therefore, the function of this part was to sustain the bird in flight rather than to push forward. Its gliding principle accords with those which have been proven since the Renaissance and is familiar to everyone today, whereas others of Leonardo's designs would definitely not have been practicable and indeed may have looked farcical and so detract from the glorious drama of the moment on television. For instance, not only would Leonardo's design for a single-wing flapping machine operated by one energetic pilot not be capable of flight, but the plot of [79 Concerning Flight] requires that two persons are on the machine. In addition, fixing a set of articulated or flapping wings to the back of each person as per another of Leonardo's designs would, even if the machine would even realise flight, look rather ridiculous and not meet the dramatic need of the pair escaping together as ideally they need to be together on the same machine.

A self-contained description of Leonardo's design for the "ornitottero prono" is on the next page

Now on to the second of the three Leonardo designs forming part of Holo-Leonardo's machine in [79 Concerning Flight].

2. Hang-glider

Left: small glider-style design, more like a glider than the "ornitottero prono", drawing on folio 64r, Manuscript I, located in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain.

This design is more like the modern hang-glider than the "ornitottero prono". Leonardo's small glider with controls relies on pure gliding without flapping. Inspiration for this glider may have come from the string-controlled kite. In the drawing, the feet of the pilot are placed at 'm' and the body is at 'a,b'. The pilot was intended to control the flight, using cords. But it is not clear from the drawing which is the nose and which is the tail of the glider.

However, Leonardo was obsessed with the possibility of humans flying using flapping wings like birds, which was an idea that had inspired others before him. Such a machine is called an ornithopter, and he went on to design ornithopters rather than gliders.

The aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) built more than ten aeroplanes, mostly gliders, stretching fabric over willow canes. Although not exactly to Leonardo's designs they vindicated many of his thought processes. Like Leonardo, Lilienthal could not entirely let go of the notion of flapping as a means of propulsion. A glider based on this drawing was successfully flown by the paraglider Robbie Whittall though after 40 crashes a tail was added to make it fly properly.

Holo-Leonardo's earlier design, the "ornitottero prono", seen in [74 The Raven], in which a single pilot lies prone, but I suspect the earlier design, which failed and landed him and Janeway in the River Arno, was an amendment of that because two people could not mount it as originally designed, and in addition is the fact that the improvements that Holo-Leonardo do not include omission of the "prone" section for the pilot though that is tenuous as an argument because he does not need to detail that as she can see for herself

in [79 Concerning Flight, Holo-Leonardo's second design omits the pilot lying prone element and adds a hang-gliding style section, but specifically retains the two front wings and rear wing as per the "ornitottero prono"

Now on to the third and last of the three Leonardo designs forming part of Holo-Leonardo's machine in [79 Concerning Flight].

3. Hang-ornithopter

The hybrid machine used by Holo-Leonardo and Janeway includes part of this design which is like a hang-glider except that the wings are designed to flap so it is strictly speaking an ornithopter. Like the [79 Concerning Flight] machine, there is no platform for the pilot to lie prone on and also the pilot sits hanging down under the wings. Of course, in [79 Concerning Flight], there are the pair of pilots on the machine.

Left: An artist's impression of the machine described above. It is a facsimile of a Leonardo drawing, bringing together two different pictures, and is printed on archival paper to complete the look.

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