You see people jump out of planes and a parachute suddenly comes out. You also see a helicopter flying over the world, but who designed these everyday objects? Leonardo’s curiosity about science led him to design and invent things that we still use today.

Leonardo Da Vinci was endlessly curious, did not accept anything until he saw and proved it himself. He would always draw observations in his notebook. He studied anatomy by dissecting humans. Not only had he seen the bones, tendons and the organs, but he observed and studied the functions of the organs. He also studied and saw how the blood functioned in the circulatory system, and observed how the eye works. He was also interested in mechanics, the science of motion and force. This included the airplane, helicopter, and parachute.

He was the first person to study the flight of birds. In 1502, he concentrated on studying birds and tried to copy the flapping of the bird’s wing on his design. Though he was surprised on how birds could fly, he described them as if they were the “machines of the sky.” In order to achieve his experiment, he carefully examined an eagle’s wing. He noticed that the eagle was heavy, but its 8-ft wingspan was able to support the bird. He also noticed the strength and flexibility of the wing, and the way it was curved slightly from front and back.

He first studied machines, and then he began to design some of them. He designed the first tank and machine gun, which he drew in his notebooks. Leonardo designed a mortar cannon that was able to fire shells over defensive walls, and explode, shattering small stones. He designed a type of gun that can fire eight iron-tipped bolts at the same time. This was a deadly method in defeating a large number of troops.

He designed and invented aircraft models and drew them in his notebooks. He designed the first parachute in 1495. The parachute helped people by decreasing the speed of the fall. He also designed an aerial screw that was designed to take off and land vertically, which managed to become the helicopter. The screw would spin upward, making it lift vertically. He designed and invented a flying machine, which had a pair of similar wings of a bat. He used very light wood for it to have less weight. The flying machine was now an airplane that he designed. It was made from wood, leather, and cow horns. When his pupil first tried to fly the plane, he only glided a few feet, crashed into the ground, and broke is leg. Since he was limited to lightweight materials, the flying machine was too heavy to fly.

Leonardo Da Vinci had accomplishments that he was pleased to see. First, he had one of the greatest scientific minds in the renaissance, and many of his ideas were centuries ahead. His accomplishments also influenced other scientists and inventors that tried to improve Da Vinci’s designs.

Most people did not believe in Leonardo, but others did, and greatly admire him. The ones who believed him studied his notebooks and saw the designs Leonardo made. They saw his neat handwriting, but it was to difficult to read, since he used mirror writing, a type of writing that could only be read through a mirror, because of the way he wrote backwards. Thanks to Leonardo’s curiosity and his notebooks, who influenced other scientists, so they could study his designs and improve his inventions.