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Letter: Da Vinci's flying machine has already taken to the air

Published 23 July 2025

From Hilda Beaumont, Brighton, East Sussex, UK

I was interested in your piece on Leonardo da Vinci’s “aerial screw” design for a helicopter. The story focused on theoretical modelling showing it could have flown with modern materials and motors. Readers might be interested to learn that in 2022, Austin Prete at the University of Maryland developed a quadcopter in which each rotor was based on da Vinci’s design. , fly in different directions and land(5 July, p 18).

Issue no. 3553 published 26 July 2025

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