Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest scientists of the Renaissance, and in his mind emerged many amazing inventions. One of them was a specific helicopter design, which, of course, could not have been created during the Italian inventor’s lifetime. Now, however, his plans were used to create a quadcopter equipped with Archimedes’ propellers of interesting design.
A team of engineers from the University of Maryland is responsible for creating the functional drone. The scientists used sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, showing the design of a “propeller” propelled by four people. In the genius Italian’s design, the helicopter was equipped with one such propeller, which meant it would fail if an attempt was made to lift and steer the machinery. American engineers approached the matter differently.
The drone they created has as many as four plastic propellers, resembling an Archimedes screw (corkscrew shape). Instead of manually rotating the propellers, battery-powered motors were used. As with most manufactured quadcopters, flight control is possible by slightly varying the speed of the propellers, making the design tilt in a certain direction.
The creator of the model himself was surprised that the device he created works. He also explained that the operation of the propellers creates a swirling vortex of air at the edge of each propeller, which is directed downward, thus creating upward thrust. The operation of the quadcopter is very loud and the size of the propellers is large, so there is no chance that commercial designs will be created based on this model.
