So, da Vinci had the reasonable foresight not just to launch people into the air to create flight in any way possible but to allow them to land safely instead of providing an exhilarating one-way trip. In fact, there are articles of people in modern times creating da Vinci’s parachute, and it works. He may not have made the parachute, but he had a plan to create one. However, da Vinci actually did devise a way for an average human to survive such a launch.ĭa Vinci invented the parachute. If one had spent the time, money, and energy actually creating the object as it more or less appears, there is little reason to believe it could not send people flying over the horizon like catapults and trebuchets had done for hundreds of years, then. In fact, this device appears to have fallen directly out of a cartoon. This invention is creative, but it does not contain the elegance that many of da Vinci’s drawings and inventions do. While crude, surely it could allow someone to fly, albeit briefly. As seen in the image above, da Vinci designed what appears to be a slingshot meant to enable human flight. Yet, there are plenty of exciting inventions in these accessible notebooks.Ĭrude Inventions of Flight A design of an apparent slingshot meant for flight, via Web Gallery of Artĭa Vinci is well known for his interest in human flight, and it can be found all over his notebooks, sometimes in unsuspecting ways. It contains notes and designs for “ flight…the helicopter, a submarine, architectural studies…and engines of war.” Again, however, images of the submarine are hard to come by due to the fact that the notebook has not been officially digitized. For example, the Paris Manuscripts previously mentioned have different sections, from A to M, and Paris Manuscript B is quick to pique interest. While the manuscripts appear to be mostly random in what notes get gathered in together for one, some have a collection of interesting items on one topic. “Armored Car” drawing, or rather, more appropriately, a Tank. The “Aerial Screw,” for example, comes from the Paris Manuscripts of da Vinci’s notebooks, but sporadic images of varying quality can only be found instead of official digitized copies online provided by the Institut de France. Some others, such as the above “Aerial Screw,” the name that consensus has assigned to the invention, can be found in notebooks that have not yet been entirely digitized. For easy access, some of his notebooks have been digitized and are available online, such as the Codex Forster and the Codex Atlanticus.

The plethora of inventions designed and drawn by Leonardo da Vinci can be found directly in his notebooks. Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks and Inventions A design for an Aerial Screw or Helicopter

Da vincis notebook