touthomme Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 My brother and I were discussing cool mechanical things I could build and Da Vinci machines inevitably came up. So I decided to build the classic human powered flying machine. I went for a bit of a different style than mahjqa's awesome model from a few years ago. I also created instructions for anyone that would like to build their own, which you can find on my website. And I figured I'd add it to CUUSOO for anyone that still plays that game. You can watch a video of it in action below. Jump to around 30 seconds in to skip my preamble and see how it works. A couple more photos can also be found on flickr. Hope you like! J Quote
BEAVeR Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Another amazing model! It's unbelievable how you've merged functionality and aesthetics in one terrific build. The motion looks realistic, and that mechanism is just elegant. I have no idea how you got the idea for that, since it's completely different from the mechanisms Da Vinci designed for these kind of flying machines, if I remember correctly. Also, it looks really great. The Technic is nicely tucked away in the beautiful model. It's also ineresting you didn't use any flex tubing. So no matter how you look at this, it's a wonderful model, and the features you've added tale it to the next level. The only thing you could possibly add, would be some steering flaps or so. Then that lovely person would know where to go. Congratulations! Quote
majorna Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 What a great model! The flapping motion is really elegant and natural-looking. Quote
Jim Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 What a great model! The flapping motion is really elegant and natural-looking. I second that. It looks very authentic! Well done. Quote
JunkstyleGio Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Very nice, but Mahjqa did a da vinci flyer some years ago. video here. Quote
Kronos Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Very nice, but Mahjqa did a da vinci flyer some years ago. He mentions Mahjqa's model in the first post. Quote
legomuppet9 Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 beautifully made mechanism, nice job! I'm really intrigued in how the linkages work Quote
Meatman Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Very nice movement. I actually like the older one a bit more mainly because of the Lego man's feet pumping. Quote
touthomme Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 Some great observations! I thought about adding more complexity, like steering flaps, but I was aiming for a minimalist design, trying to keep it simple and elegant. Even as is, it was quite a challenge to keep it as simple as it turned out. It seems obvious looking at it now, but I worked through many complicated variations of raising/lowering the model in time with the flapping of the wings. As I recall Da Vinci conceptualized several variations of the flying machine, one of which did have the pilot pulling the wings with his/her arms. I don't think those sketches are as commonly found or referenced as the classic foot powered one though. Thanks for all the comments! J Quote
skriblez Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Very cool moc. Always nice to see different ideas come out in Lego's Quote
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