Recently Viewed ›
Recently Downloaded 
Close x
Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, writer, anatomist, geologist, astronomer, inventor, and scientist — he truly was the namesake of a Renaissance man.
Born in Vinci, Florence in 1452, he took on an apprenticeship as a painter and a sculptor. Throughout his life, he became well known among the royalty and nobility of Europe and was regularly called upon to design machines, statues, sculptures, and other inventions for military use or simply for the enjoyment of royal courts.
Some of his most famous works include The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. As well as his fascinating inventions such as flying machines, robots and giant horses.
Keep reading to see some of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions drawings.
At the core of Da Vinci's work was science, he saw his art, sculptures, and inventions through the eyes of logic and science. Using perspective, light, and anatomy to create wonderful things that were hundreds of years ahead of their time!
Da Vinci regularly used his engineering skills to create complex machines and colossal bridges/sculptures.
Here are a few of Da Vinci's greatest inventions, some of which lived in the pages of his sketchbooks and some which were designed, manufactured and saw use throughout his lifetime.
Get creative with your history or art display and add a few of our Leonardo da Vinci Display Posters to it. Show off some of the amazing works of the most famous Renaissance man.
Leonardo had such an illustrious career that it is impossible to talk in-depth about each of his inventions on this short wiki page. The Leonardo da Vinci inventions list below goes into detail about a few of the inventor’s most famous creations:
Throughout his life, Da Vinci was particularly obsessed with the idea of human-powered flight using machinery. By studying the anatomy of the bird, he hoped to build a machine that would allow humans to take to the skies.
Although never manufactured, Da Vinci created several concepts and drawings for what he called 'ornithopters' — narrow rectangular machines made of metal and wood with two large wings that are flapped up and down by the driver using pedals.
Even though Da Vinci's 'ornithopter' was never built, the information and designs were used to inform inventors for the next 400 years.
Pictured above: Leonardo da Vinci Inventions Drawings
Da Vinci was hired by many kings and noblemen throughout his life, and often turned his inventions towards their military needs.
Originally designed to aid the soldiers of a particular king, Da Vinci's diving suit (made of leather tubes, canes, and a face mask) would have been worn by soldiers to cut holes in the side of an invading ship from beneath the water!
Unfortunately, the design was never needed and remained in the planning stages for the rest of Da Vinci's lifetime.
The most well known of Leonardo's inventions was the 'Helical Ariel Screw' — now known as a helicopter. This flying contraption consisted of a single screw-shaped blade that would be controlled with pedals by the user.
Many prototypes of the design were created during Da Vinci's life, but he found little success in achieving sustained flight with his creation. Although he used wood, rope and cloth to create the design, it was still too heavy to be lifted using human muscle power alone.
Fortunately, centuries later, the principles that Da Vinci discovered would be used again to create the helicopter, which had the benefit of an engine to create lift.
Pictured above: Leonardo da Vinci Inventions Drawings
Along with his flying machines, and diving equipment, Da Vinci designed several other machines for the military powers of Italy. One of them is the 'armoured tank' which appears in his bookCodex Arundel.
First sketched in 1487, the cone-shaped vehicle is made up of a cart with four wheels attached to various gears. A large cone of thick wood and steel would be placed over the cart, and up to 20 cannons could be inserted into gaps around the edge of the cone.
Curiously, historians have noticed that the construction diagram contains an error, it would cause the wheels to move in opposite directions from each other. Historians believe this was a strategic decision by Da Vinci so that only he could assemble it correctly.
This addition to this Leonardo da Vinci inventions list was an undiscovered gem for some time. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that da Vinci’s drawings of a self-propelled cart were discovered. Even after its discovery, it took until the end of the century in the late 1990s for people to figure out how the machine was supposed to work. Professor Carlo Pedretti was the first person to realise that the cart wasn’t directly driven by the springs, but instead operated using a different mechanism that was controlled by the springs. Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart was able to move completely independently and could also be programmed to make a turn. However, the cart could only make right turns.
One of Leonardo's inventions which certainly did reach the construction phase is his 'automaton' — A robotic knight in armour.
The knight was a life-size copy of a knight in plate armour. Designed for the royal court of Milan in 1495, it was operated via a series of pulleys and levers (like a modern-day puppet toy) which mimicked human movements.
According to the stories of the royal court of Milan, Da Vinci's automaton was able to move, sit down and stand up, as well as lifting its vision and holding a sword.
In the 1480s, Da Vinci was commissioned by Duke Sforza to create a bridge that could be built and disassembled to help troops move across wide rivers.
Da Vinci created the first revolving bridge which could be easily packed up and transported by soldiers to be rebuilt elsewhere. It was designed from wood and featured a set of wheels as well as a rope-and-pulley system to make it as quick as possible to set up.
The first parachute was manufactured by French inventor Sebastian Lenormand in 1783, though evidence has been collected that shows that Leonardo had got there first!
A sketch next to a brief annotation suggests that Da Vinci had devised a method of slowing down had quickly someone would fall.
If a man has a tent made of linen of which the holes have all been stopped up, with twelve Braccia across and twelve in-depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury.
If it were manufactured, his invention would have allowed the user to glide safely to the ground from a tremendous height!
The second of Da Vinci's impressive automatons was conceived towards the end of his life. When under the employment of the brother of Pope Leo X (Giuliano de' Medici), he built a mechanical lion as a gift for King Francis I of France.
According to reports by the King of France, the lion machine could walk, move its head, roar, and even open its chest to reveal the fleurs-de-lys (the symbol of the French Kingdom).
The Ornithopter is one of the many flying machines that Leonardo da Vinci invented throughout his life. This machine was inspired by birds and the way that they fly. Much like birds’ wings, the Ornithopter was designed to be lifted and operated by flapping wings that would be powered by muscle energy. These manpower Ornithopters were a success to an extent, as they were able to take flight for a short period of time and over short distances. However, they were always held back by the limitations of human physiology. Despite the Ornithopter not being able to fly over long distances, da Vinci’s notes and sketches of the machine provided information that proved to be essential for the development of modern aviation.
This may seem like an unexpected addition to this Leonardo da Vinci inventions list, as not many people know that da Vinci created a 33-barrelled machine gun. Da Vinci’s machine gun looked nothing like the modern machine guns that we have today. Instead of firing bullets from the belt of the gun, da Vinci’s machine was designed to fire bullets from individual guns that were connected in 3 rows, each containing 11 guns. Whilst Leonardo da Vinci’s machine gun was never actually built or used in any warfare, it did have an impact on the design of modern machine guns.
During the 5-year period between 1490 and 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began to develop a keen interest in both the scientific and the artistic, which would shape all of his future work. Gradually, da Vinci began writing about the four main themes that would carry throughout his life and career: painting, architecture, the elements of mechanics, and the human anatomy. Throughout his research, da Vinci derided and disregarded speculative book knowledge. Instead, he relied on solid, undeniable facts which could only be gained through experience.
This approach to his work resulted in Leonardo da Vinci’s concept of ‘science of painting’. This concept argued that painting itself was a science and that the painter was the most qualified individual to achieve true knowledge. This is because the painter possessed the powers of perception and the ability to illustrate them. This led da Vinci to form a plan to observe every object in the visible world, recognising its form and structure, and representing it through pictures exactly as it is.
During Leonardo’s first years living in Milan, he began curating his notebooks. Leonardo da Vinci invention drawings were among the many things included in his notebooks. The notebooks also included sketches of his observations that he would make when he was out and about. In the notebooks from da Vinci’s early career, there is a collection of material for a study on painting, a model book of architectural sketches, a study on the theory of mechanics, and the beginning of a study on the human body.
An unusual aspect of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing and writing in his notebooks is his use of mirror writing. Mirror writing is when an individual writes in the reverse of the natural direction so that it can be read clearly with a mirror. Leonardo was left-handed, which made mirror writing easier for him, but there is uncertainty around why he actually chose to do it.
Another, slightly strange, aspect of Leonardo’s notebooks is the relationship between illustrations and words. Throughout his notebooks, da Vinci uses a wealth of interesting and vivid vocabulary, which he cultivated throughout his studies. This vocabulary was extremely impactful and offered a huge contribution to the evolution of scientific writing in the Italian vernacular. However, despite his love of literature, it is indisputable that Leonardo gave precedence to his illustrations over the written word in his teaching method. This is apparent in his notebooks, as the text always serves to explain the illustrations, which is a fairly unorthodox way of writing as it is often the other way round.
Many of Leonardo's inventions were documented in his sketchbooks and notebooks. Modern-day historians have been able to translate and recreate many of his inventions to see how they work. Unfortunately, we do not know how many of his inventions were manufactured and proved to work during his lifetime.
To find out a little more about the life of Leonardo da Vinci, try out our interactive Da Vinci Hotspot activitywith your class.
Are you looking for a way to amplify your teaching of Leonardo da Vinci's life and works? Well, look no further! Here at Twinkl, we have created a wide range of engaging resources to aid your children's understanding and help you take your lessons to the next level. Here are some of our favourites:
Home 
Membership 
TwinklCares 
Updated Help for 2022 
Catch-up Resources 
Home Learning Hub 
Create 
Blog 
