What was Leonardo da Vinci’s vertical-flight machine, drawn around 1489, called?

Leonardo da Vinci’s vertical-flight machine, drawn around 1489, was called the aerial screw.

Leonardo described a large helical rotor made from reed, linen, and wire. His notes suggested that the rotating screw could press against the air and lift the structure upward. The design is often described as an early helicopter concept, although it was never built or tested by Leonardo.

The aerial screw was inspired partly by the Chinese flying top, a toy known in Europe through illustrations and descriptions. Leonardo’s drawing is not a practical aircraft plan by modern standards: a human crew could not easily provide enough power to rotate its broad rotor. The design is therefore important mainly as a conceptual step in the history of vertical flight, not as the first working helicopter.

Modern reconstructions have explored how the idea might behave, but they do not prove that Leonardo’s original machine would have flown. The terms “aerial screw” and “air screw” are commonly used for this specific Renaissance design.