Did Leonardo da Vinci ever build one of his flying machines?
1) “Leonardo designed a multitude of mechanical devices, including parachutes, and studied the flight of birds as well as their structure. About 1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-powered ornithopter (a wing-flapping device intended to fly). There is no evidence that he actually attempted to build such a device, although the image he presented was a powerful one.” Source: http://www.flyingmachines.org/davi.html 2) “For much of his life, Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, producing many studies of the flight of birds, and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter and a light hang glider. Of these, most were impractical, but the hang glider has been successfully constructed and demonstrated.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#Engineering_and_inventions 3) “Most of Leonardo’s investigations into flight had the same major flaw; he assumed man had sufficient co-ordination and muscle power to copy bird flight.” “It is even thought o
