Project by Bill Huffman | posted 07-08-2014 01:42 AM | 3499 views | 2 times favorited | 12 comments | ![]() |
![]() |
I built this and it hangs in my home office. Its about a 5 ft wingspan and is pretty closely based on DaVinci’s original design, except for the crazy tail I added. Purists will call me on this right away, but as Terry Gilliam said, “It’s just a model”. I did all the brass work by hand, with lots of loose interpretations.
-- Im so impressed with what people can do, and I wonder how they do it. Thats what keeps me doing it.
12 comments so far
TopamaxSurvivor
home | projects | blog
20257 posts in 4685 days
#1 posted 07-08-2014 02:49 AM
Nice model, welcome to LJ!
-- Bob in WW ~ "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence
Skip Mathews
home | projects | blog
120 posts in 2859 days
#2 posted 07-08-2014 04:32 AM
What a great sculpture!
-- Being focused on a project is the best meditation, it allows you to live in the moment"
Bill Huffman
home | projects | blog
257 posts in 2428 days
#3 posted 07-08-2014 04:38 AM
Thank you very much. I work in an office all week, and when I get to the weekend, its just like playing when you were a kid.
-- Im so impressed with what people can do, and I wonder how they do it. Thats what keeps me doing it.
cyclops4069
home | projects | blog
66 posts in 2586 days
#4 posted 07-08-2014 05:03 AM
Beautiful work Bill….do you have plans for this structure?...or is this built from dwgs and photos??...would love to get my hands on plans if you have any….love to try this one myself…..
-- regards, cyclops4069
Bill Huffman
home | projects | blog
257 posts in 2428 days
#5 posted 07-08-2014 05:11 AM
Thank you, it was a great project. Its mostly an interpretation of what I could figure out in drawings, but I got a great book, Leonardo’s Machines Published by D&C (David and Charles). Its a bunch of CAD drawings of some of DaVinci’s machines and really cleared up a lot of things. From that I just SWAG’d the measurements.
-- Im so impressed with what people can do, and I wonder how they do it. Thats what keeps me doing it.
stefang
home | projects | blog
17040 posts in 4343 days
#6 posted 07-08-2014 07:45 AM
Some really well done woodworking Bill, not to mention all that classy brass work and the historical aspect. I like that you added your own details instead of making a perfect copy. That is what a craftsman/inventor from the era would have done, which makes it even more authentic in my mind. Welcome to LJ. I hope you enjoy yourself here.
-- Mike, an American living in Norway.
toyguy
home | projects | blog
1745 posts in 4846 days
#7 posted 07-08-2014 10:25 AM
well done
-- Brian, Ontario Canada,
MarkTheFiddler
home | projects | blog
2068 posts in 3197 days
#8 posted 07-08-2014 10:26 PM
That’s a beauty! You’re liberal interpretation makes it a Bill original inspired by DaVinci. Purists preserve the lessons of history. Artists make history. Both are important, but I wouldn’t worry about what the other ‘party’ says. One day someone might be a purist about your creations.
-- Thanks for all the lessons!
leafherder
home | projects | blog
1977 posts in 2961 days
#9 posted 07-08-2014 10:35 PM
Another elegant design. And I have to ask which aviation pioneer is next on your list: Santos Dumont, Glenn Curtis, Samuel Langley, Alexander Graham Bell, or the ones who actually succeeded – my hometown favorites Wilbur and Orville? :) Thanks for posting.
-- Leafherder
JoeinGa
home | projects | blog
7741 posts in 3016 days
#10 posted 07-08-2014 10:50 PM
Wow. Color me “Impressed”
-- Perform A Random Act Of Kindness Today ... Pay It Forward
Bill Huffman
home | projects | blog
257 posts in 2428 days
#11 posted 07-08-2014 10:56 PM
Thanks Leafherder, I think I actually want to build one of Dumont’s airships. I read the book “Wings of Madness” 8+ years ago and it was really great to get a feeling of that age. Five guys could go up in a week in home built whacky ideas, and only 2 might survive…...what a crazy time. This is Dumont’s Demoiselle
Another great book of that time is “Colonel Cody and the Flying Cathedral” by Garry Jenkins. Samuel F Cody was the first to fly in Britain, but he was actually an American, Samuel Franklin Cowdery. This is a scratch built Cathedral out of Oak of all things.

-- Im so impressed with what people can do, and I wonder how they do it. Thats what keeps me doing it.
Mustang67
home | projects | blog
111 posts in 2563 days
#12 posted 07-08-2014 10:58 PM
That is super cool. I love your other projects as well.
Have your say...