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Leonardo's other flying machine designs
Leonardo designed the Aerial Screw c.1489. It is seen in the corner by the window of Holo-Leonardo's workshop in [ 68 and 69 Scorpion], [74 The Raven], [75 Scientific Method] and [79 Concerning Flight]. |
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 | Leonardo was obsessed with the possibility of humans flying using flapping wings like birds, which was an idea that had inspired others before him. He moved quickly on from designing the equivalent of gliders and designed machines with flapping wings - such a machine is called an ornithopter. In the "Dune" science-fiction books by Frank Herbert (and a film version of "Dune") one type of transport is the ornithopter, and in the plasticine-animated film "Chicken Run" by Aardman Animations the chickens design and construct an ornithopter (shown left) (the ornithopter's shape is rather chickenlike). |
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In [75 Scientific Method], screenshot shown top left, the wing is seen of either an improved or different flying machine design. Possibly it could be part of Leonardo's design shown bottom 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. It is often known as "design for an artificial wing", which is a very general term, and dates from 1493-95. The drawing is black chalk, pen and ink, measures 50 x 30 cm, and is from folio 313 r a of the Codex Atlanticus, and is located in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy. |
flapping wing design, in folio 88v from Manuscript B of the Codex Atlanticus, dateable between 1483 and 1486
The above flapping machine was conceived by Leonardo, especially in the first design phase, as a dynamic challenge that man would hurl against nature. He reasoned that air, unlike water, can be compressed. A man could keep himself in flight with an artificial wing compressing the air, just as if he were navigating on water. The problem lay in flapping the wing with sufficient speed to prevent the compressed air escaping from under it. The problem of the speed was a question of dynamics, of adequate force being generated by a man.
In his drawing, Leonardo describes how to measure the specific lift of a wing. He first makes use of a pair of scales - clearly visible at the top of the drawing - and then he uses the tool designed to test whether a bench weighing 200 lbs. (about 68 kg.) could be lifted. In his note, Leonardo stresses the importance of speed in the down-beat movement of the wing. He finally reports an interesting example of how a man immersed in water can lift himself up by pushing his arms down and then raising them fast, instead of moving them slowly. In another note contained in the Codex Atlanticus, folio 825 r., after having verified that the wing span of a duck, expressed in yards is equal to the square root of the weight of the animal, Leonardo calculated that, the wing span required to lift a man and his flying machine, weighing an overall 400 lbs (136 kgs.), must be equal to about the square root of the total weight namely 12 metres.
Eventually Leonardo streamlined the wing structure to its simplest form, with wings attached directly to the pilot's body, producing in effect an ornithopter. See Leonardo's drawings below.
 | This drawing, which is from the Codex Atlanticus folio 846 v., located in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in Italy, contains three drawings of articulated wings, operated by means of belts strapped to the legs and body of the pilot. Drawing in red ink and pen. The note in the margin, added at a later stage, does not refer to the drawings described but contains remarks on the motion of water flowing from the mountains. |
 | Leonardo designed this device to be worn and operated by a man. The machine, endowed with traction and torsion mechanisms in the outer part of the wing, attempted to reproduce faithfully the structure of a bird's wing. The purpose of this device was to guarantee the automatic return motion of the flexed wing. Leonardo put special care into the study of the springs and joints connecting the various sections of the wing. The drawing dates from c.1496 and is in pen and pencil, folio 844 from the Codex Atlanticus, and is located in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy. |
 | Ultimately Leonardo abandoned the flying projects after continued failure, but he continued to study systematically the flight of birds until the end of his life. On this sheet he recorded the observation that birds made use of varying winds when gliding, and he noted this down in small sketches on the margin. Probable date 1505, pen and ink on paper, measuring 210 x 150 mm, and located in Biblioteca Reale in Turin, Italy. |
It is a wonderfully appropriate ending to [79 Concerning Flight] that Holo-Leonardo achieves his dream of flying.
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He has a conversation later with Janeway (whom he knows as Catarina) which ends on an upbeat note.
 | Janeway: "Leonardo, I think that little flight of ours went to your head."
Holo-Leonardo: "And my heart. My oldest memory, Catarina, is of a great bird perched on my bed, its feathers open towards me as if summoning me. Now you yourself have accused me of giving up, of er failing to complete my projects." Janeway: "I was trying to encourage you." |
Holo-Leonardo: "No, no. You were right. 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."
 | Janeway: "And now that you've actually flown....."
Holo-Leonardo: "Now who knows what I cannot accomplish." |
 | As they go, they pass one of Holo-Leonardo's drawings. It depicts a bird in a cage. |
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Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site