“If black boxes survive air crashes – why don’t they make the
           whole plane out of that stuff.”            – George Carlin

Da Vinci 1452-1519

Leonardo Da Vinci is well known for being the Renascences man who
mastered numerous arts during his lifetime. One of the more interesting
Interests Leonardo pursued was studying the flight of birds and designing
and building models from his studies. There is no evidence that Leonardo
flew, but there is proof that some of his designs would indeed work.

Leonardo had studied the wings of the bird in detail and sketched
studies of the structure of the bones and shapes of the feathers.
He discovered the important fingers of the birds wing, known as the
alulae. He was aware of center of gravity and stability. Leonardo
even diagramed the vortices of the ends of the wings. (Vortices
are turbulent swirls of air left behind a wing’s tip, created by the
wing’s lift. When flying, vortices are to be understood so that you
 may avoid them or are prepared for them, as they disrupt your wing’s airflow)