In the fifteenth century, artist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci envisioned a craft that flew using a single helix-shaped propeller — the aerial screw — viewed by many as the first vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) machine ever designed. In 2020, the Vertical Flight Society’s (VFS) 37th Annual Student Design Competition challenged students from across the world to reimagine da Vinci’s design. Using modern-day analytical and design tools, students were tasked to design and demonstrate a feasible modern-day VTOL vehicle based on the aerial screw concept and demonstrate the consistency of its physics. Here’s the result! Find out more about the Vertical Flight Society here. See it fly in this video!
