What type of flapping-wing aircraft did Leonardo da Vinci design?

Leonardo da Vinci designed ornithopters, aircraft intended to fly by flapping wings like birds.

His notebooks contain several studies of bird flight and multiple proposed flying machines. Some designs used a person’s arms and legs to operate large wings, while others placed the pilot in a frame beneath the wings. Leonardo carefully examined how birds generated lift and how their wing shapes changed during a stroke.

The machines were not practical because human muscles could not provide enough power to lift the structure and pilot. Leonardo’s studies nonetheless contributed to the history of aviation by treating flight as a mechanical and physical problem rather than a purely mythical one.

An ornithopter is not the same as a helicopter or a glider. A helicopter uses rotating blades, while a glider relies on aerodynamic lift without flapping propulsion. Leonardo investigated all of these broad ideas, but his flapping-wing projects remained designs and experiments rather than successful aircraft.