Many of us are familiar with Leonardo Da Vinci the artist. His contributions to the culture are seemingly endless. The Last Supper and Mona Lisa are some of the most famous paintings the world over. He was also a sculptor, engineer, geometer, anatomist, and architect. He was also an inventor.
Recently, a couple of teams of engineers decided to test whether or not Leonardo Da Vinci was as brilliant as everyone thought. They decided to take two of his designs, build them and see if they would work. The two designs decided upon were: A glider, and an 80 ft weapon similar to a crossbow but firing spherical projectiles. Each team was limited in the time and materials they had to use to construct their projects.
The glider was designed by two aeronautic engineers and built in a barn. They were adamant about keeping true to the design laid out by Da Vinci and only using materials available to him in that period of time. Their glider was actually taken from two drawings: one of the main body of the glider and one of the tail piece.
In their initial tests, they first built a small model of their initial design to see if it would work. It turned out ok, so they proceeded with the big model. While building the large model, they ran into somewhat of a problem. As the wing was designed, at least as they were able to tell, there was canvas only covering the top of the wing. It was aerodynamically unsound. It would not generate the lift needed to allow the invention to work. They spent some time consulting with a Da Vinci scholar and together they made an astounding discovery. They were probably the first people to discover that Leonardo understood basic aerodynamics and had designed the wing with canvas on both sides, creating the inequality in pressure needed to create lift.
Nearing completion, they invited in their test pilot to take a look. She was the world hang-gliding champion. After initial inspection, she was extremely excited about it, but gave one stipulation…they had to implement some kind of system to allow her to control the glider. It became a tug of war. The engineers refused to consider it because it was outside of the designs set forth by Da Vinci. She refused to fly it, preferring to keep her neck unbroken.
When everything seemed to fail, their scholar found another discovery. A tiny drawing in one of Leonardo’s notebooks depicted a basic system using weight as a control device. Although it was inverted, they felt that it fell within they were keeping true to the inventor and added a similar (only they right side up) control system to the glider.
They tested it on a windy fall day on a hill familiar to their test pilot. With leads on the front and wings of the glider, they began to test gliding down the hill. Once she got the feel of the glider, the tests went beautifully. As they proceeded, they removed the leads used to help guide the glider. Once in real control, the pilot found that the simplistic control system (using the shifting of her body weight to bend the wing) worked amazingly well. It was a success. 500 years before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, Da Vinci had designed a working aerodynamic flying machine.
An article with a slideshow of the project
intriguing but do you have any references for where this story came from?
Unfortunately I was unable to find references by following the source, which was a 2 hour PBS special. I was unable to find out anything on the PBS site, whic was disappointing because I wanted to find out more myself. PBS usually does repeats sometime in the season, so check your local listing.
Here is a url to buy the DVD: http://www.shoppbs.org/sm-pbs-leonardos-dream-machines-dvd–pi-2108848.html.
I actually saw this story on PBS a few weeks ago. I find it disappointing that you have not cited your source, after writing a blog that follows the story of the PBS special scene-by-scene.
I am glad that I remembered it so well. The blog came out of what I could remember from the show and I apologize for not citing PBS. When I first intended to write these articles, I was hoping to find some more info, but having not found it, I was discouraged and left off writing these for a few weeks.
This is a TV show, great reporting
Interesting story and amazing if true! :)
I have one minor gripe tho. Im not sure whether its an error of memory if quoting from the source or whether its a personal comment by yourself Josh. The last line:
“It was not the Wright brothers who developed the first flying machine, but Da Vinci 500 years earlier.”
This is incorrect. The Wright Bros arent remembered for creating the first flying machine. People had been flying for over a century! The Wrights are remembered for the first ‘powered’ flight. They had an engine in their aircraft to propel it. Its a subtle yet important difference to your statement.
But other than that its a great report.
I’ve just googled about this and found http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/B/buildingthebest/prog3.html which have even some photos. Amazing.
Thanks, eduardoflores, that is a great source. I will add it as a link in the article.
That was a great show man, and a good synopsis.
But you have to remember to site lol.
thatsmyname said: “That was a great show man, and a good synopsis.
But you have to remember to site lol.”
You mean “cite”.