Leonardo da Vinci designed an ornithopter as a flying device with flapping wings modeled on a bird.
The word ornithopter comes from Greek roots meaning “bird” and “wing.” Leonardo’s surviving notebooks contain several studies of bird flight and machines intended to imitate it. His designs generally used a human operator to power wings through pedals, levers, or other mechanical linkages.
Leonardo understood that birds generate lift and propulsion through coordinated wing movements, but a human-powered machine would not have had enough power to fly. The design therefore remained a study rather than a working aircraft. It is also important not to confuse an ornithopter with Leonardo’s separate rotor-based flying-machine concept, which is often compared with a helicopter.