Leonardo da Vinci’s proposed human-powered flying machine with flapping wings is called an ornithopter.
The word ornithopter comes from Greek roots meaning “bird” and “wing.” It describes an aircraft that flies by moving its wings, rather than using a propeller or fixed wings. Leonardo studied bird flight and drew several designs for machines that would imitate it.
Leonardo’s designs included wings, frames, and mechanisms intended to transfer the pilot’s muscular effort into wing movement. However, no Leonardo ornithopter is known to have been built or flown successfully. Human muscles cannot provide enough sustained power for a practical flapping aircraft of the type he sketched.
An ornithopter is not the same as a helicopter, which uses rotating blades, or a glider, which relies on aerodynamic lift without powered flapping. Modern ornithopters exist as small experimental aircraft and models, but Leonardo’s work belongs to the early history of attempts to understand and reproduce powered flight.