Leonardo da Vinci’s proposed flying machine with rotating blades was called the aerial screw.
Leonardo drew the design in a manuscript usually dated to about 1489. It showed a large helical rotor made from linen, reeds, and wire, supported by a circular platform. Leonardo wrote that if the screw-shaped surface were tightly wound and powered by people turning cranks, it might rise into the air.
The aerial screw is frequently described as an early ancestor of the helicopter because its central idea is vertical lift from a rotating rotor. However, Leonardo’s machine lacked a suitable lightweight engine and would not have produced enough lift with the materials and human power available in the fifteenth century.
The drawing is also called Leonardo’s helicopter in popular accounts, but “aerial screw” is the more precise historical name. It was a conceptual invention, not a documented flying machine that Leonardo built or successfully tested.