Leonardo da Vinci was born on the April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Florence, in what is now Italy. Leonardo was perhaps more famous for his artwork, but he was also a really good inventor.
One of his most famous inventions was a printing press. Gutenberg is usually credited with inventing the printing press half a century earlier, in about 1448. However, Leonardo was the first man to dramatically improve it by making it so that one person could use it, not several.
Another of his most famous inventions was the helicopter. Leonardo based his invention on a spiral because it often appeared in plant life. It is amazing that he designed a helicopter 350 years before a working helicopter was produced.
The parachute was another one of his most famous inventions. This is what he said about it. “If a man have a tent made of linen of which the apertures have all been stopped up, and it be twelve braccia across and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury.”
Another of Leonardo's most famous inventions was a military tank. Leonardo designed this ancient version of the tank to carry heavy firepower and be driven by men working the enclosed wheels with cranks. Its turtle-like cover was intended to shield enemy fire. He wrote this will take the place of war elephants.
Leonardo's designs and inventions were only built many years later. Another amazing thing was that most of his inventions worked and are used worldwide today and in many different organizations today. Leonardo was a real renaissance man and had many different skills such as painting some of the world's most famous paintings and being a really god scientist and inventor.
