Helicopter Inventor Pays Tribute to Da Vinci

A 75-year-old Japanese man who has created the world's smallest helicopter intends to fly it over the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, in a tribute to the Renaissance inventor.

Gennai Yanagisawa, who runs an electronics equipment company in Matsumoto, central Japan, is planning a demonstration flight of the 75kg (165-pound) one-man aircraft in the city of Vinci, near Florence on May 25 to salute the significance of Da Vinci's original blueprint of the vertical flight machine.

The helicopter will fly up to 5 meters (16.5ft) above the ground during three 10-minute demonstrations.

"Since the concept of our helicopter came from Italy, I always wanted to take a flight in the birthplace of da Vinci," Yanagisawa told Agence France-Presse. "I feel like I'm greeting an ancestor. I hope Da Vinci would be pleased."

The Guinness World Records have confirmed that Yanagisawa's helicopter is the smallest model in the world in terms of weight and its rotor length of 3.9 meters.

The businessman developed his helicopter, which also contains a chair, handle bar and footrest, in the late 1990s. With its four engines it can stay in the air for 30 minutes and can reach top speeds of 56mph.

Da Vinci designed what is thought to be the first vertical flight machine, "an aerial screw," in the 1480s, according to Italy's National Museum of Science and Technology.

Yanagisawa has sold five helicopters in Japan and two in the US for recreational use for 6 million yen (£29,000) each. He has high hopes for its future use as a mode of transport. "I hope someday this can be used just like a scooter," he said.