"...I have discovered that a screw-shaped device such as this, if it is well-made from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned quickly..." Leonardo Da Vinci - Codice Atlantico

Often been cited as the first serious attempt to produce a working helicopter, Da Vinci 's was only an experimental design and was never put into practical use. Was clearly far ahead of its time, but without adequate technology the ability to create such machines was virtually impossible.
His sketch of the aerial screw or air gyroscope device is dated to 1483 but it was first published nearly three centuries later.
A scale model (currently exposed at the Science Museum of London) recently built with the original Da Vinci plans was not successful to raise itself in flight.