Da Vinci’s Tank
A weapon that no one had ever even imagined and capable of sowing terror among enemies
Leonardo da Vinci’s Aerial Screw is like the grandparent of helicopters. Imagine a giant spinning toy top, but instead of flying off a table, it’s designed to lift people into the air. Da Vinci sketched this corkscrew-shaped wonder back in the 1480s, dreaming it could soar by twisting through the sky, much like how a screw burrows into wood.
Made of reed, linen, and wire, the Aerial Screw was meant to rotate rapidly enough to create lift. Think of it as Leonardo’s bold attempt to crack the code of flight centuries before helicopters were a thing. Although it never took off—literally—it’s a testament to his wild imagination and boundless curiosity. Who wouldn’t want to fly around in a Renaissance helicopter?
Because da Vinci was so observant of nature and his surroundings, it is believed this design was partly based on his observations of the spinning of maple seeds as they fall to the ground. It also closely resembled Archimedes’ screw used for irrigation purposes in 200 BC. This screw was used to move water from a canal or other water source to an area of higher ground. In order to power the aerial screw, four men, standing on the platform, are required to push the four wooden shafts in a circular motion. Da Vinci believed this would generate enough force to lift the machine into the air. He intended for the aerial screw to be made of reed, linen, and wire. Although he never created a physical model of this design, we now know that da Vinci’s aerial screw would be too heavy to be lifted into the air. The force generated by the four men is not strong enough to overcome the strong pull of gravity from this heavy device.
The aerial screw design is interesting because it contains no elements that resemble birds. Da Vinci realized wings enable birds to fly but wings are not required for flight. Ahead in his understanding of aerodynamics, da Vinci realized flight occurs due to the compression of air. He used this principle in his aerial screw design, which relies on the circular motion of the device compressing the air below and causing the top portion to lift.
