This drone flies using da Vinci's 530-year-old helicopter design Leonardo's aerial screws actually can work when built with modern materials, University of Maryland engineers find with a drone called Crimson Spin. Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, br
![Surprise! Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter design actually works as a quadcopter drone](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/3392145d6d47013b97f25332ae698d29e1066f66/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fa%2Fimg%2Fresize%2Fb1aee39a77dc17f77e2ddd5f23b92b7df4a6d11a%2Fhub%2F2022%2F01%2F31%2F3985fcd5-07bc-40bd-b60a-302e46edd8e1%2Fleonardo-da-vinci-quadcopter.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26fit%3Dcrop%26height%3D675%26width%3D1200)