Da Vinci's flying machines and schemes land at the Museum of Flight

(COURTESY EVENT MARKETING SERVICE)

Mona Lisa. The Last Supper. The Virgin of the Rocks.

Most of us know Leonardo da Vinci as a master painter. But in his lifetime, this Renaissance man was not just an exceptional painter but also a gifted architect, art historian, engineer, inventor, scientist, sculptor and writer.

An exhibit celebrating his work, aptly titled "Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius," makes its West Coast premiere at the Museum of Flight this month. On view until Jan. 28, the show is a collection of reproductions — of Leonardo's sketches, paintings and machines. At the center of the exhibit are the more than 50 3-D models of his machines.

The show contains just one actual artifact under lock and key: a page from his Codex Leicester (a folio of scientific illustrations and observations about natural phenomena such as astronomy, gravity and water, on loan from Bill Gates).

Many of the machines on display at the museum offer a hands-on component, from turning a crank to spinning an object. And interactive computer simulations accompany the inventions, detailing whether Leonardo's concepts could have worked. Visitors can plug in their body's dimensions to see whether they would have successfully flown in one of the contraptions, for instance.

A wall-size timeline chronicling the salient events of Leonardo's life winds its way throughout the exhibit, which is separated into areas that explore flight, mechanics, hydraulics and weapons.

And his most famous work — the art — lines the walls in another room, where the machines are surrounded by lifesize reproductions of two dozen paintings attributed to Leonardo. And a short biographic film is used to flesh out who Leonardo really was. This good-looking man who never ate meat invented the first working robot (it saluted).

The show celebrates Leonardo's 500th birthday. Born in a village near Vinci, just outside of Florence, in 1452, he lived and worked in Florence, Milan and France, where he died in 1519. "Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius," from Vienna-based exhibition-producing company EMS, has traveled throughout Europe and most recently to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

It's fitting that this show would appear at the Museum of Flight, said Chris Mailander, the museum's director of exhibits. "Leonardo was fascinated with flight and worked on solving the problem of people flying throughout his life."

About this passion, Leonardo wrote: "There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other. The Spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings ... "

Judy Chia Hui Hsu: 206-464-3315

or jhsu@seattletimes.com

This is certainly one of Leonardo's most famous designs, since it can be recognized as an ancestor of the helicopter. It was to be made of reeds, linen and iron thread, and would have been operated by four men who, by rotating a shaft, could lift themselves off the ground. It is clear that the mechanism, so conceived, could never have taken off, but the idea remains that with the force of an adequate motor, the machine would actually have spun itself into the air and off the ground. (COURTESY EVENT MARKETING SERVICE)
Another example of Leonardo's fascination with flight. If he had been able to lower the long lever rapidly enough, the wing would have lifted the weight on the plank. Since Leonardo determined the measurement of the wing on the basis of his observations of birds, the correct measurement of the wing must have been 13 yards long by 13 yards wide. (COURTESY EVENT MARKETING SERVICE)
Leonardo was captivated by flight, often studying and sketching birds in motion. Here we see a sketch for a winglike design. Many of his flight-related designs are ornithopters, which are aircraft that fly by the human-powered flapping of their wings. Unfortunately, human beings aren't strong enough to power them, but Leonardo's perseverance in designing flying machines paved the way for our modern airplanes, gliders, helicopters and parachutes (COURTESY EVENT MARKETING SERVICE)

Now showing

"Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius," 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, through Jan. 28, Museum of Flight, 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle; $15-$24, includes museum admission (206-764-5700 or www.museumofflight.org).