Leonardo da Vinci’s screw-shaped vertical-flight design is known as the aerial screw.
Leonardo sketched the machine around 1489, probably in the Codex Atlanticus. The drawing shows a large helical surface wrapped around a central mast, with a platform and people turning the mechanism. His basic idea was that the screw could press against the air and rise vertically.
The aerial screw is often called a helicopter precursor, but it was not a working helicopter. The proposed materials and human-powered mechanism could not have generated enough lift, and the design had no modern rotor-control system.
Leonardo’s sketch nevertheless anticipated the central principle of rotary-wing flight: a rotating lifting surface can produce upward force. Modern helicopters use powered rotors rather than a continuous screw-shaped sail, so “aerial screw” is the precise historical name for Leonardo’s concept.