A century ago, man first succeeded in using wings to soar aloft into the heavens. Today, engineers are working on adaptive wings that resemble bird wings in that they are capable of adjusting their shape to suit the prevailing conditions. The object is to reduce aircraft fuel consumption by 30% over the next 20 years. Leonardo da Vinci was a universal genius with a great number of achievements to his name. But even the archetypal Renaissance Man failed to achieve mankind's ancient dream of flying. His attempts to build a bird-like flying machine met with the same fate as all later attempts to build an aircraft with flapping wings.
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机译：一个世纪以前，人类首先成功地利用翅膀高高地冲向了天堂。如今，工程师们正在研究类似于鸟类翅膀的自适应翅膀，因为他们能够调整形状以适应当前条件。目标是在未来20年内将飞机油耗降低30％。达芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）是一位天才的天才，他的名字取得了许多成就。但是，即使是原型文艺复兴时期的人类也未能实现人类古老的飞行梦想。他建造鸟状飞行器的尝试与后来建造翼展襟翼的飞机的命运一样。
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