Leonardo da Vinci's human-powered, flapping-wing flying-machine concept was an ornithopter.
An ornithopter is an aircraft intended to fly by moving its wings up and down, imitating birds, bats, or insects. Leonardo studied bird anatomy and flight in his notebooks and imagined a pilot lying or standing inside a framework while operating wing mechanisms with the arms and legs. His drawings are among the best-known Renaissance investigations of artificial flight.
Leonardo's machine was not a successful aircraft, and no full-size working ornithopter was built from his plans. The design also depended on human muscle power, which is insufficient for lifting a person with the proposed structure. This is different from a glider, which uses fixed wings, and from a helicopter, which obtains lift from rotating blades. Modern ornithopters have flown as small experimental aircraft and model machines, but Leonardo's design remained a concept.