Blending 2020s and 1490s Technology, This da Vinci-Inspired Drone Screws Its Way Through the Air

Engineering students at the University of Maryland have gone historical for a new quad-rotor drone design — borrowing a blade style originally published by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century.

There's considerable variation in aerial drone designs, from large-scale devices, which look like traditional aircraft to tiny creations inspired by insects. Austin Prete and team's creation, though, is something unique: A quad-rotor drone where the traditional rotor blades are replaced by designs borrowed from da Vinci's never-flown aerial screw sketches.

Built using commercial off-the-shelf drone parts bar the rotors, the project — brought to our attention by The Drive — uses da Vinci screw rotors built from modern materials including plastic, steel, and aluminum. The work began back in 2019 — or the 1490s, depending on your perspective — with the first functional model taking off in 2021 for a competition to build a modern interpretation of da Vinci's designs.

The eye-catching rotors aren't just for show, either: The drone's creators claim that they produce more thrust than traditional rotors for the same rotational speed, at the cost of drawing more power, and offer reduced downwash.

There's a suggestion of reduced noise levels, too, but more work is required to confirm that latter feature — particularly as the design has yet to be optimized, but with Prete having moved on to industry further development will need to await new volunteers.

More details on the project are available in The Drive's write-up. While the prototype was presented at the 2022 Transformative Vertical Flight conference, the related paper has not yet been made publicly available.