Leonardo da Vinci designed an ornithopter with a wingspan of about 10 metres for human flight.
An ornithopter is a machine intended to fly by flapping wings, imitating birds or bats. Leonardo's studies include several versions, with one large design using a wooden frame, fabric wings, and a mechanism powered by the pilot's arms and legs. He reasoned from observations of birds, but he did not fully account for the enormous muscle power needed to lift a human and a heavy machine.
The 10-metre figure is associated with one of Leonardo's large flapping-wing concepts, not every flying-machine sketch in his notebooks. His aviation work also included gliders, a parachute, and the aerial screw, each based on different ideas about flight.
No Leonardo ornithopter achieved powered flight. Modern human-powered aircraft generally use fixed wings and a lightweight structure, while experimental ornithopters use modern materials and engineering. Leonardo's designs remain historically important because they treat flight as a problem of anatomy, materials, force, and control.