It’s no secret that when it comes to the topic of anatomy, Leonardo Da Vinci was way ahead of his time. More than 500 years after his passing and after the artist, polymath, inventor, and Renaissance genius was able to catch the attention of many scientists and researchers, he’s been making news due to the huge societal impact of his legacy.

The ‘uomo universale’ model was the result of Da Vinci’s curiosity. He planned various projects simultaneously, something that would create little success. Although it wouldn’t reach the success of the majority of his projects, he was especially cautious with his ideas, which were accumulated in a series of notebooks. Many of these books allowed a glimpse into his imagination of what he reached with his revolutionary investigations such as the wetsuit, parachute, and diving suit.

Inspired by the salvaged designs, a group of scientists and investigators from the University of Maryland had created a drone. They did this by using one of Leonardo’s machines and successfully gave form to the Archimedes Screw, converting it into a drone. It is an object similar to a corkscrew that had as an attribute the ability to push air beneath itself in order to achieve propulsion. The small screw only worked on this drone, which represented the start of an interesting and challenging development that could transform the flight of helicopters.

Da Vinci: background

The idea that the outline of universal genius could be left in thousands of drawings isn’t far-fetched, as the project researchers successfully managed to fly the drone-based on Florentine’s imagination. They, moreover, are sure that, with adequate technology, the artifact could be made at a larger scale and be capable of transporting people. 

The students from the University of Maryland used aluminum and plastic to be able to complete the prototype conceived by the Italian genius and they added electric motors, batteries, and computer control systems for the aircraft to function correctly. The design is not identical to that of the 15th Century, but the Crimson Spin demonstrated that the model drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci are more relevant today than ever before.

Translation by David Crowe