Leonardo da Vinci “Codex on the flight of birds” exhibition

Inaugurated on September 12, 2013 at the Washington National Air and Space Museum was the exhibition on the Leonardo da Vinci “Codex on the flight of birds”, supported by Bracco Foundation, attentive as always to the relationships between art and technology.From September 13 to October 22, 2013 it will be possible to admire this extraordinary document, produced in about 1505, which shows the interest of Leonardo in the flight of man through the exploration of the flight and behaviour of birds.The Codex, owned by the Turin Royal Library, include sketches and descriptions of apparatus and aerodynamic principles relating to mechanical flight, are anticipating by about four centuries the invention of the aeroplane.The “Codex on the Flight of Birds” is on show in the gallery dedicated to the Wright Brothers.Interactive stations will allow visitors to leaf virtually through the 18 pages of the Codex. A model of the aerial ornithopter that takes off by beating its wings, taken from a drawing by Leonardo, will be on show at the entrance to the exhibition.“Taking the Leonardo da Vinci Flight Codex to Washington in 2013 as we celebrate the Year of Italian Culture in the United States and 50 years of collaboration between Italy and the United States in Space, means creating a dialogue between Renaissance and modernity, tradition and innovation,” said the Italian Ambassador in Washington, Claudio Bisogniero, “there could be no place more suitable than the prestige Air and Space Museum for housing a unique work, dedicated to flight, and to admire the scientific genius of Leonardo.”