Building Leonardo da Vinci's Ornithopter — The Flapping-Wing Flying Machine

Leonardo da Vinci spent decades studying how birds fly, filling his 1505 Codex on the Flight of Birds with observations of wings, air and balance. From it came his ornithopter: a machine in which a person lies prone and drives great bird-like wings up and down with arms and legs. This blueprint reconstructs it — wing frames, linen membranes, and a pulley-and-pedal drive. It is also honest about the outcome: a human simply cannot produce the power to flap wings big enough to lift themselves. The dream failed, but Leonardo's insights into cambered wings and air as a fluid were right, and they fed the aircraft that finally flew.