Leonardo da Vinci’s aerial screw is often described as an early helicopter concept.
Leonardo sketched the design around 1489. It used a helical, linen-covered surface intended to rotate and “screw” upward through the air. The drawing is among his best-known studies of flight and mechanical motion.
The aerial screw was not a working helicopter. Leonardo did not build a powered prototype, and the materials and human power available in Renaissance Italy could not have produced enough lift. Modern helicopters use rotating blades, engines, and carefully controlled aerodynamics rather than a single spiral surface.
The design is frequently confused with Leonardo’s ornithopter, another flying-machine concept based on flapping wings. The aerial screw is historically important because it shows Leonardo reasoning about vertical flight centuries before practical helicopters appeared.