Fly like a bird

People have always been interested in flying airplanes and helicopters but they don’t make you feel like a bird. Leonardo da Vinci and Patrick de Gayardon wanted people to feel like they were really flying.

• born 1452, in Vinci (Italy)

• loved nature as a child and he was very curious

• he wasn't only a painter (sculptor, architect, writer, composer, scientist, mathematician, inventor)

• helped invent things we use nowadays

• Da Vinci worked for a man who worked for this family

• Medici family was a powerful, cultural and artistic family that influenced Da Vinci

• He listened to these people talk when they had their evening meetings (artists, writers, scientists...)

• 1486
• aircraft
• it was supposed to move like a bird
• complicated control system

• only designed, personally never created

Da Vinci was influenced by the people that I'm going to show you now.

• 9th century
• born in Spain, (Al-Andalus)
• he did a lot of things
• first person to fly with a pair of wings
• first time he tried his invention, it didn't work

• 11th century
• English monk
• made wings, attached them to his body and jumped from a high tower
• he flew 200+ meters, but he broke his legs when he landed

All these people from the past influenced inventors in the present. Patrick de Gayardon is one of them.

• born 1960, in Oullins (near Paris)

• parents died when he was 2 years old, lived with grandparents

• studied law at university

• loved sports (tennis, golf, volleyball and skiing)

• started doing base jumping at

20 years old

• at the end of the 80s he started doing sky surfing

• he jumped from 12700 meters with no respirator + set a record

• some people call him a “flight scientist”

Base jumping

• he designed a wingsuit with fabric between the arms + legs

(this made it possible for humans to glide in the air)

• he needed 3 years to design the suit

• he tested the suit in October of 1997

• he died in 1998 when a test jump didn’t work (the parachute didn’t open)

Patrick was influenced by the inventors I showed you before and also the people that I'm going to show you now.

• 1912

• French tailor

• He is recognized for jumping off the Eiffel Tower, while he was testing his new parachute

• He died because the parachute didn’t open

• 1930
• American airshow performer

• jumped from a homemade glider at 10,000 metres
• was watched by 100,000 people
• he died because the parachute didn’t open

Many inventors died because they were their own guinea pigs. The idea of flying like a bird is senseless because nowadays you can have the best technology, but if the parachute doesn't open you can die.