Elenco Great Kite - Manual (Page 10)

We can presume the rest of the machine was to be made of wood, using different
species based on their properties: ash wood for the wings, because it’s flexible; beech
wood for the pulleys, since it’s easy to polish; and walnut wood or something else
more resistant for the structural parts. The Great Kite, described and drawn in the
Codex on Flight, is one of the most complex flying machines that Da Vinci designed.
It’s likely that Da Vinci never finished building it, but he profoundly believed that his
project was worthwhile and fervently desired to test it, launching it, with a pilot, on
the edge of a mountain top. In fact, in one of the most famous phrases from the Codex
on Flight, Da Vinci wrote:
The first great bird will make its first flight, launched from the peak of Mount Cecero
and will fill the universe with amazement and all the reports of its great fame will
confer eternal glory upon the places where it was conceived.
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