Leonardo Airborne and Flights of Fancy
He was left handed and wrote from left to right. The word in Latin for left is ”Sinister”. His antagonism towards the Church and their mutual distrust of Leonardo are deep rooted, a Ying and Yang of conservatism vs. creativity. A century before telescopes, Leonardo claimed that the earth was not the center of the universe but moved around the sun in an elliptical orbit.He said that the earth was but a small planet in the vastness of the solar system; that the stars were distant worlds, much larger than they seemed; and that the sun was but one of their number.
Davinci’s earliest plans for a flying machine resembled a bat. He expected the wings to flap, so he planned a jointed fuselage of stitched leather. He imagined the aviator lying face down in the frame and rowing the air with wings. He also conceived of the idea of a propellor for locomotion, in the fashion of a helicopter on several other draft sketches and intuitively understood the theory of mechanical combustion to power his vehicles.
Most of them actually worked.Davinci’s futuristic blueprints were a form of science fiction art. In the 1930′s at the urging of Benito Mussolini , a Milan engineer, Roberto Guatelli built 156 models based on Leonardo’s notebook sketches for an exhibition.Guatelli integrated Davinci’s design, art and science into working models. The exhibit travelled to New York and then Japan, where Guatelli , by refusing to swear alleigance to the Emperor was incarcerated in a Japanese concentration camp for 22 months.The original models were destroyed by bombing raids and he rebuilt about a third of them after the War which were purchased by IBM and toured as a corporate sponsored exhibition.
Davinci replica, Japan
He did attempt one flight in what was probably a glider. it was constructed on a high building and Leonardo at the controls according to a single reference that has come down through the ages. ( According to The Catholic World, 1946) The flight was a failure and he never made another attempt. The enduring allure of Davinci seems to revolve around his aura as the man of the impossible and the sense of the fantastic and magical within his grasp. There is always movement and fluidity; a narrative within a narrative all of which seem detached from prevailing norms.
The videos were produced and created by FALLON advertising agency and especially ”The Bridge” video also known as ”Birdie” seems indebted to Davinci. Its spirit of the Renaissance invokes Davinci’s Italy in a compelling and authentic manner. Perhaps a successful attempt by Leonardo after the disappointment of the inaugural glider launch.
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