Leonardo’s Glider
We will of course never know if Leonardo ever truly flight-tested his glider designs, but there have been a couple of recent attempts to see how sound the design was. A 1980s reconstruction apparently did fly but has been criticised for its use of modern materials such as nylon sail cloth and aluminium, bringing the weight down by a factor of eight.
In 2002, however, the BBC commissioned another reconstruction – this time using materials faithful to Leonardo’s design – bamboo for the framework and sealed cotton for the sail. While there were stability problems, the addition of a tailplane – consistent with Leonardo’s other work on flight – provided a workable solution.
And this one managed several stable flights, including one as long as 18 seconds with considerable promise for longer flights under better conditions…
Cheers
Jerry
