Leonardo da Vinci fans at Union Station crank and turn Renaissance-era designs

For much of Sunday afternoon, Christian Corley and his son Dakota launched their handmade paper rotocopters into a Union Station wind tunnel.

Some of the miniature helicopters flew a little, others flew less. Then one cleared the tunnel entirely.

Eureka.

“You know what, we followed directions,” Corley, an Olathe inventor and developer, told Dakota, 9.

“When all else fails, follow the directions.”

The Corleys were among many visitors who experienced individual eureka moments Sunday while attending “Da Vinci: The Exhibition,” which opened Friday at Union Station.

“Da Vinci was always one of my heroes, and I’m trying to extend that to my son,” Corley said.

The exhibit includes 65 fully built life-size designs credited to Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian inventor and painter, as well as more than 20 fine art studies and other displays covering 10,000 square feet.

Visitors are invited to crank, turn and operate many of the exhibits. In a gallery devoted to da Vinci’s military prototypes, Bryan Nixon of Grandview climbed into a circular wooden tank and turned its hand gears, wincing at the racket they produced.

“I think the sheer noise would be the most effective part of it,” Nixon said.

Maj. Tim Clark, a civil engineer stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., spent much of Sunday at the wind tunnel watching his children, Maxwell, 7, and Dallas, 17, launching their own paper rotocopoters.

“I like the hands-on part,” Clark said. “By playing with the exhibits they can start to understand the principles behind them.”

Clark’s family spent four years stationed near Venice, Italy, and there immersed themselves in da Vinci’s culture and accomplishments. Today the family owns several models based on da Vinci’s designs, including his man-operated flying machine.

“Da Vinci was a creator ahead of his time,” said Clark’s wife, Lesley.

“It’s amazing to watch our kids play with his toys 500 years later.”

The exhibit includes other areas for children, such as a corner where they can use crayons to color in their own versions of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and still another area, near the wind tunnel, where they can use wooden pillars and arches to construct their own Renaissance-era cities.

“There’s a lot of hands-on stuff, and you can do a lot of cool stuff, and it just makes me feel good,” Dakota said.

The exhibit runs through May 1, 2016.

This story was originally published October 25, 2015 at 6:29 PM.