Leonardo da Vinci Design Wooden Ornithopter Model Kit Build Your Own Ornithopter When ornithopters roamed the earth&#8230;oops, no, it just sounds like a dinosaur. The ornithopter was one of Leonardo&#39;s masterful designs, although this one just led to a bunch of guys on winged bicycles plummeting to the earth in the 19th century. Still extremely cool, however, in this kit version. Pre-cut, unpainted wooden pieces assemble with pegs to make a crank-operated moving model with a 24" wingspan, complete with a human figure, which our model-guru calls a 15th C. crash-test dummy.