What was Leonardo da Vinci’s four-winged flying machine called?

Leonardo da Vinci’s four-winged flying machine was called an ornithopter.

An ornithopter is an aircraft designed to fly by flapping wings, imitating birds or bats. Leonardo filled several notebooks with studies of bird flight and proposed machines in which a pilot would operate large wings through levers, pedals, or other mechanical linkages.

Leonardo’s designs were not practical aircraft because human muscles cannot produce enough sustained power for a person-sized flapping machine. The term ornithopter is broader than Leonardo’s work and applies to later designs, including experimental aircraft and small modern drones.

The ornithopter is often confused with Leonardo’s aerial screw, which used a helical rotor rather than flapping wings. Both were imaginative attempts to solve powered flight centuries before engines made it possible.