For years pixel Leonardo da Vinci has filled notebook after notebook with drawings of swifts, kites and bats, trying to work out how a wing really lifts. The result is waiting on a hilltop above the valley: an ornithopter of light wooden ribs and stretched canvas, with a harness underneath and two great wings that flap when you pull the handles. The first test flight goes down in his notebook as the Ornithopter Hop.
The sun is low, the air is warm and the vineyards below glow gold. Pixel Leonardo takes a running start and leaps. Each pull of the handles is one strong beat of the wings, and between beats the machine glides and sinks. The way across the valley runs past the stone watchtowers of a hill town, scaffolding from a church still being built and old marble columns. A flock of swifts has left feathers floating in the air, and every one is a clue for a better wing. How far can the first flight go?
