Bart Bear's Blog

Did I mention that Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to think of almost every machine? Well, here's another couple. The one on the left is a jack. It is just like the one that Dad had in his old car. The only problem with this model is that the handle is too high for small bears to reach. Dad could reach it and it certainly lifts small bears easily enough. The one on the right is a helicopter! It is not much like a modern chopper, but the basic idea is there. I can see a few problems that Leo would have come up against if he had a useful motor and had built a full-sized machine. For sure, he would have had to put a tail rotor on it to counteract torque, and something to cure the cyclic variation in lift as the blades whiz around (Dad explained about this and I almost understand it). I am sure that a genius like Leo would have sorted these out and we would have had working choppers centuries ago, except that nobody had discovered petrol and light-weight engines then.

Labels: Canberra, gardens, helicopter, heroes