Leonardo da Vinci’s spiral lifting-machine design was called the aerial screw.
Leonardo drew the aerial screw in the Codex Atlanticus around 1489. The design used a large helical sail or screw, made from reed, linen, and wire, that was intended to rotate and push against the air. Leonardo believed the device might rise if its screw were turned rapidly by people operating inside it.
The aerial screw is often described as an early conceptual ancestor of the helicopter, but it was not a working helicopter. Its proposed materials and human power source could not have produced enough lift. Modern helicopters use powered rotors with carefully shaped blades rather than a single linen-covered spiral.
The drawing is important because it shows Leonardo reasoning about vertical flight centuries before powered aviation. It was a design study, not a machine he built or tested successfully.