Leonardo Da Vinci: The First Modern Scientist

Did Leonardo Da Vinci live in the wrong century? Leonardo lived in what is now known as Italy in the late 15th century, but it seems his mind was working in the 20th century. Leonardo certainly represented the exciting time of new ideas in the arts and sciences known as the Renaissance. Leonardo, a man with “boundless curiosity, multiple talents, and visionary imagination” (Prum 3), explored painting, sculpting, science, philosophy, and engineering. He recorded his thoughts, observations, diagrams, and drawings in notebooks that originally filled over 13,000 pages on a wide variety of topics (Byrd 30). Contained within those works are numerous gadgets, tools, machines, and inventions. The designs of Leonardo da Vinci became the blueprints for several modern aviation, military, and water-related inventions.

Leonardo provided innovative thought in the study of flight. He focused on aviation for over 23 years. Credited for using the scientific method for the first time to study flight, he observed how birds fly and then applied that knowledge to try to achieve human flight (Cooper 53). Leonardo devoted much energy into making a flying machine utilizing manually powered wings attached to a person (Kallen 55-57). Over the years, he added more and more devices to help control the plane, such as landing gear, wing slots, and a tail for steering (Cooper 53). However, he never got the flying machine to work because it weighed too much and humans could not provide enough power (53). He also made sketches for an “aerial screw” that were the basis for the design of the modern day helicopter (Hart 328). Leonardo derived the sketches from a Chinese toy that whirled rapidly (Byrd 28). The lack of a powerful enough engine to rotat...

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