Leonardo da Vinci designed an aerial screw with rotating blades intended to lift a vehicle into the air.
He drew the concept around 1489, describing a large helical rotor made from linen supported by reeds. The design is often compared with a helicopter because its rotating screw was meant to create upward force by pushing against the air.
Leonardo’s proposal was not a helicopter in the modern engineering sense. It had no engine capable of powering the rotor, and the materials and structure would not have produced practical sustained flight. The sketch is best understood as an imaginative investigation of vertical lift.
The aerial screw is sometimes called a helicopter or helicopter screw in popular accounts. “Aerial screw” is the more specific historical name for Leonardo’s design and avoids suggesting that he built a working modern rotorcraft.