Leonardo da Vinci's Il Cigno - Seattle, WA - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

Located at the Museum of Flight are a large number of static aircraft on display. One of them is a Il Cigno, also known as "The Swan".

A nearby placard highlights the history of this glider and it reads:

The Swan
Il Cigno--"The Swan"--was designed to show what Leonardo da Vinci could have done if he had focused on the problem of manned flight.

The pilot pulls the wings down by pushing with his arms and legs, air pressure pushes the wings back up. The moveable tail, actuated by the pilot's body movements, controls pitch and yaw during gliding flight.

The builders of this aircraft fascimile knew that da Vinci's sketches were simply a thinking process, and were never intended to made into working machines. Da Vinci knew that he had not solved the problem of powered flight. His collection of manned flight studies contributed little to advance the dream of flight except to announce that the most-celebrated thinker of the age did not find the idea of flight ridiculous.

An ornithopter is a machine shaped like an aircraft that is held aloft and propelled by wing movements. No successful human-powered ornithopter has ever been built because human musculature and metabolism are woefully inadequate for the job.

Creative Genius
One of the greatest minds of all time, Leonardo da Vinci was born as the illegitimate son of a Florence notary and a peasant woman. He lived his childhood with his father's family in Vinci, Italy. Later, when he had moved to Florence, Leonardo became an apprentice to the artist Verrocchio.

In 1472 da Vinci was registered in the painters' guild, but he was much more than just a brilliant artist. Architecture, music, engineering, and science were also fields in which this great thinker excelled.

The versatility and creative power of da Vinci mark him as a supreme Renaissance genius.

His drawings, on a multitude of subjects including submarines, anatomy, nature, flying machines, caricatures, fortresses, weapons, and bridges were an amazing mixture of scientific precision and rich artistry.

Leonardo's notebooks reveal scientific exploration and mechanical inventiveness centuries ahead of his time.

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Il Cigno Tail Number: (S/N): None Construction:: replica Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Museum of Flight inside / outside: inside Other Information:: Not listed Access restrictions: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Photo of aircraft (required - will be interesting to see if the aircraft is ever repainted or progress if being restored)
Photo of serial number (required unless there is not one or it is a replica)
Photo(s) of any artwork on the aircraft (optional but interesting)

Tell why you are visiting this waymark along with any other interesting facts or personal experiences about the aircraft not already mentioned.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/19/2022 Ninja Fairies visited it 08/02/2022 Ulven7470 visited it

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