Leonardo da Vinci studied an ornithopter, a flying-machine concept with flapping wings powered by a person.
Leonardo’s ornithopter studies were inspired by birds and bats. He examined wing structure, muscles, balance, and the movement of air, then tried to translate those observations into a machine. Several drawings show a human operator lying or standing within a framework and using mechanical arrangements to move large wings.
An ornithopter differs from a glider or airplane because its wings flap rather than remain fixed. Leonardo’s proposed human-powered versions were not successfully flown, partly because a human could not generate enough power for the required wing area. His studies were nevertheless important in the history of aviation because they treated flight as a mechanical and scientific problem instead of a purely mythical one.