Description:

This model, reconstructed based on a drawing in Manuscript B in France, reproduces a flying machine with flapping wings; the pilot got into the metal semicircle, lay down on the platform and with his feet pushed on the pedals which, via a rope and pulley system, set the two large wings in motion. This flying machine belongs to the phase in which Leonardo reflected on mechanical flight, a period during which his designs count only on the strength of human muscles, in a similar way to the flapping of  wings which allows birds to soar through the air.