Throughout his career in Florence, Milan, and elsewhere in Italy, Leonardo da Vinci designed numerous flying machines, including ornithopters (flapping-wing aircraft), helicopters, and gliders. His sketches, found in his codices, show a deep understanding of aerodynamics and anatomy, but his designs were never built or tested in his lifetime. The technological limitations of the time, such as the lack of a lightweight power source, made his flying machines impractical. However, his studies laid the groundwork for future aviation pioneers.

Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines have become a symbol of the Renaissance spirit of inquiry and the human desire to transcend earthly limitations. They have been celebrated in the poetry of figures like John Keats, who saw Leonardo as a type of the visionary artist-scientist, and in the works of modern poets who explore the relationship between art and technology. The image of a man trying to fly with artificial wings has become a powerful metaphor for human ambition and the inevitable fall, as seen in the myth of Icarus, which Leonardo himself studied.