What makes man want to fly? Speed, freedom, and the prospect of looking down at a miniature world were enticing motivators for inventors. Unfortunately, few of the great aerospace inventors would live to enjoy the advantages that were once monopolized by the birds. World history contains many examples of cultures which worshiped or attempted flight. Almost all ancient cultures had mythological gods and beasts with the attributes of flight. Many cultures attempted flight through one manner or another. The Chinese, for example, used kites and rockets to attempt flight. 

Perhaps the most notable man of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, created the first working theories of manned flight. Da Vinci was a famous painter and inventor who spent hours attempting to create a flying machine. His ornithopter was a hybrid between a glider and a bat. A man could climb into it and conceivably fly for short distances after being launched from a cliff. There is no proof, but many historians believe men actually accomplished flight in his ornithopter. The inventor also sketched designs of helicopters that were more than 400 years ahead of their time.

A model produced from da Vinci’s ornithopter design.
No one is certain if the ornithopter ever flew.

Da Vinci was paranoid of other inventors and the close-minded culture of fifteenth-century Italy. He put all of his drawings of inventions into a notebook with his writing backward, so it could only be read with a mirror. These invaluable notebooks and his inventions disappeared from the scholarly world until the eighteenth century. If only his world had been more accepting of his theories, perhaps the development of flying machines would have occurred much sooner.

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A rough rotor-wing aircraft design by Leonardo da Vinci.