Leonardo da Vinci - Catapult

grabcad

Leonardo da Vinci's drawings depicted an ancient catapult design used for centuries. The design, however, did not include a leaf spring, which would have been necessary to carry heavy loads without breaking. In this interpretation, I included a two-part leaf spring similar to the English longbow used in battles at Agincourt and Crecy. Leonardo's innovation was the use of a worm and wheel to load the leaf spring, providing an easy winding action with a large mechanical advantage while preventing the drum from unwinding. Release was achieved by simply disengaging the worm from the wheel.