“Study the anatomy of the wings of a bird together with the muscles that move those wings,” Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his notebook around 1490. “Do the same for man to show the possibility that man could sustain himself in the air by the flapping of wings.” 

For more than 20 years, Leonardo did as he had commanded himself, producing more than five hundred drawings and thirty-five thousand words in a determined effort to produce a “flying machine.” His work ultimately provided the foundation for the invention of airplanes and helicopters some 400 years later. But how was it that Leonardo kept up this extraordinary stream of creative energy?

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