Flying machine: wing-cloth fastened to the heels
A faint mechanical linkage with a note to attach the wing-cloths down to the heels
The sheet bears a faint drawing of a mechanical linkage of bars and joints in its upper half and a fainter offset sketch below. The single surviving note directs that the cloths (the wing surfaces of a flying machine) be fastened down as far as the heels. Further faint, largely effaced drawing is present beyond what the transcription records.
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Fasten the wing-cloths down to the heels
The instruction attaches the fabric of the wings all the way to the operator's heels, tying the wing surface to the legs so that leg motion can drive it. It belongs to Leonardo's studies of man-powered flapping flight.
Linkage of bars and joints
The upper half shows a faint articulated linkage of straight bars connected at pivots, the kind of jointed mechanism Leonardo used to transmit and reverse motion in his flight apparatus. The transcription gives no words for this drawing.
