Did Leonardo Da Vinci really fly and is this quote really one of Leonardo Da Vinci's? (See details)?

Question

Players of Civilization IV will recognise this quote:

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Leonardo Da Vinci.

Can anyone give me a source/reference for this quote or did the makers of Civ4 just make it up?

Answer 1

No they didn't make it up. It is a quote that's been attributed to da Vinci but its source is a mystery. Now you ask did he really fly? Again we can't be sure but it's doubful. Leonardo was fascinated by flight though. He said, "...the first memory of my childhood is that it seemed to me, when I was in my cradle, that a kite came to me, and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my lips..."

During Leonardo’s own lifetime, Giovanni Battista Danti was said to have carried out trial flights over lake Trasimeno and eventually killed himself by crashing into the roof of a church. Leonardo may well have been aware of this and I suspect had he attempted to fly or suceeded in flying he would surely have informed his comtemporaries or a patron.

Leonardo did write about making test flights though. But perhaps his awareness of the dangers deterred him. He recommended to others that the machine be tried over a lake, with inflated wineskins attached to the aviator to prevent him drowning.



By 1500, machines with beating wings become less dominant in Leonardo’s studies, following the realisation that humans lacked the muscular power of birds. His studies of birds in flight take on a new intensity as he concentrates on the possibility of sail-flying. He correctly identified the relationship between the centre of gravity and the centre of pressure in a glider, he comes close to the principle on which modern gliders are based: -

“The man in a flying machine to be free from the waist upward in order to be able to balance himself as he does in a boat, so that his centre of gravity and that of his machine may oscillate and change where necessity requires, through a change in the centre of its resistance.”

One of his wing designs was used in a hang glider, made for the television programme “Leonardo’s Dream Machines” (Channel 4, UK) and generated more than enough lift to carry an aviator over a considerable distance.

During the early 1890s, Lilienthal achieved the first sustained stable flight in a glider. In his machine the pilot throws his hanging torso and legs in the direction in which he wants to travel, thus shifting the centre of gravity and with it the centre of pressure. According to Leonardo’s principle the upper body controls the shift. This is a serious error, which would have led to instability and eventually the pilot and machine toppling over!

Leonardo’s study of flight and innovative inventions had no significant direct impact on early flying machines, simply because his work in the field was little known before it was published in the early 20th century. Earlier publications of his manuscripts either omitted his work on aeronautics altogether, or did not take it seriously. Hureau de Villeneuve’s article in L’Aéronaute in 1874 was the first publication that properly established Leonardo as the first to scientifically investigate flight.

Nonetheless, Leonardo’s observations on the flight of birds are a valuable contribution. His study led to the observation that “as much pressure is exerted by the object against the air as by the air against the body”. This predates Newton’s so-called third law of motion, which states that every action gives rise to a reaction of equal strength in the opposite direction, by almost two hundred years.

Answer 2

There seems little doubt that the quote is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (see Link 1) but it is a little difficult to trace the exact source.

Almost certainly, it will be from the translation of Leonardo's Notebooks by Edward McCurdy which was published in 1906, but I can't find a link to prove that.

As per the other part of your question, I think there is no evidence to suggest that Leonardo did actually fly in any of his own works.

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Did Leonardo Da Vinci really fly and is this quote really one of Leonardo Da Vinci's? (See details)?
Players of Civilization IV will recognise this quote:

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Leonardo Da Vinci.

Can anyone give me a source/reference for this quote or...

Answer 4

The quotation misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci that begins, "Once you have tasted flight" has been discussed on Wikiquote. The probable author is John Hermes Secondari (1919-1975), American author and television producer, who wrote the script for the 1965 TV documentary I, Leonardo da Vinci, which is where science fiction writer Ben Bova probably heard it and thought it might be a quotation of something da Vinci actually said. no one has ever been able to find the quotation in any of da Vinci's writings, nor is it likely to have been written by anyone who hasn't actually flown (and there is mo real evidence that da Vinci ever did).

Answer 5

a extensive research in the web showed me, that the quote is indeed attributed to leonardo da vinci. check the link please:
http://www.unitedearth.com.au/davinci.html
however some also claimed "anonymus" and one charles lindbergh as the source of the quote.
if leonardo da vinci really flew is questionable. he made a lot of drawings without ever building the devices.

Answer 6

Once You Have Tasted Flight

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Thanks to each and everyone of you for the replies.