Designs by Leonardo da Vinci for the wings of a flying machine, 15th century. [Getty Images]

ITALY - FEBRUARY 23: Diagrams from a notebook by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci (1452-1519) was the most outstanding Italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer of the Renaissance period. He had a wide knowledge and understanding far beyond his times of most of the sciences, including biology, anatomy, physiology, hydrodynamics, mechanics and aeronautics. His notebooks, written in mirror writing, contain original remarks on all of these. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

SSPL Science & Society Picture Library