User:Penguinshark02/sandbox/Great Kite

The Great Kite is a wooden flying machine designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 1400's to the early 1500's. The drawings and instructions on how to build the machine was written in the Codex on the flight of birds; however, many builders have to largely interpret what is written because much of the instructions was left unfinished and unclear. Da Vinci took inspiration from the kite bird and subsequently named the machine after it.

The Great Kite

History

The concept of the Great Kite was made by da Vinci in the late 1400's to the early 1500's. His design, along with its drawings and instructions, was formally published in his Codex on the flight of birds in 1505. At the time of its publication, it was one of the most complex flying machines ever designed. However, the machine was likely never built or finished by da Vinci.

Build concept

The Great Kite was designed to be made with two arms that had wings attached to it and a cockpit for the pilot. The cockpit was made so that the the top half of the pilot's body was exposed. The steering controls was made of pulleys that would connect the pilots arms and legs with the arms of the kite. A tail attaching the back of a pilots torso to possibly the back of the wings would also provide extra steering (where the tail would go was never specified). It was proposed that there would be 4 joints in the arms held together by spheres to allow the wings to move freely and rotate with respect to air flow.

The dimensions of the wings is about 18 meters across and the greater dimension is about 110 square meters in total.

Materials

The Great kite was largely made out of wood. However, what type of wood was left unspecified and was left for interpretation; for example, ash wood would be used for the arms and the wings, beech wood for the pulley system, and a resilient wood like walnut would be used for the structural parts.

Da Vinci proposed that the wings could be made with taffeta, a very thick silk, or a starched linen canvas so that there would be no holes for air to pass through. He based the wings on a bat instead of a bird; birds wings could let air go through it while bat wings were impermeable.

It was also suggested that the joints of the machine were made with resistant leather and that the pulleys were made with silk.

The kite shouldn't have any metal used to make it because metal breaks and wears away under stress.

How it works

The pilot is seated in the cockpit and is bound to the moving pulleys on his arms and legs. The pilot was required to maneuver, rotate, and open and close his wings using his own body movements.

A pilot would open and close the wings by moving his arms in or out. It was possible to close both of the wings or one at a time. This mimics a birds ability to open or close their wings in order to not overturn when being hit by wind.

Raising or lowering hands would change the incidence of the wings. This process is not independent; raising your hand would raise the incidence of one wing and lower the other and vice versa. Having both of the arms at the central position would made the wings neutral and level out.

The legs are used to maneuver and rotate; the inclination of the wings changes depending on leg movement. If the pilot were to raise their right leg, their left leg would lower and the result would be turning to the right. The result is the same for the left leg but vice versa. To perform the maneuver proficiently, it is recommended to move both legs simultaneously.

The tail is attached to the back of the exposed torso of a pilot, possibly connecting it to cables in the back of the wing. By moving the shoulders, a pilot could twist the tail, lowering or raising a side of the wing. This provides extra precision of maneuvers.