Da Vinci had intended that the craft would be powered by air pumps, but it took five centuries before the engineers in Maryland instead took the help of, among other things, batteries to realize da Vinci's idea.
Building a vehicle with a propeller shaft, as da Vinci imagined, proved difficult to construct.
The drone has four rotating blades that are made of plastic and are powered by batteries and an electronic motor.
But despite the drone's very unusual appearance, it works just as well as any drone.
"I was very surprised that it worked," one of the engineers at the University of Maryland told CNET.
Leonardo da Vinci is best known for the paintings Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but in addition to art he was very interested in technology.
As early as the 1480s, da Vinci began sketching on an airplane, several centuries before the Wright brothers made the world's first flight.
IN THE CLIP: See when Da Vinci's drone takes off from the ground.