Patrick Peebles: A Leonardo da Vinci for The 21th Century

Patrick Peebles A Leonardo da Vinci for The 21th Century
It may look like a combine-harvester but a plane designed in a Tuscan farmhouse is being hailed as one of the great breakthroughs in aeronautical history.

Instead it is the birthplace of a new aeroplane hailed as "the fourth great breakthrough in aeronautical science". Leonardo da Vinci has skipped forward a few centuries and south a few hundred miles and taken up residence in the body of an expatriate American called Patrick Peebles.

A self-taught inventor whose ideas include a loudspeaker composed of a gas flame and a rotating fork for eating spaghetti may be on the brink of conquering the aircraft industry.

Pat Peebles, a compulsive tinkerer who skipped university and whose last proper job involved servicing McDonald's food processors has invented a new aeroplane that looks as if it has been crossed with a combine harvester. "At Farnborough [air show] recently a lot of people asked if it would also mow their grass," he admitted.

But the bizarre-looking aircraft, with long rotors running the length of both wings, has already attracted tens of thousands of pounds in grants from the British Government. Mr Peebles is to be honoured, alongside Burt Rutan, pioneer of cut-price space flight, at the World Technology Innovation Awards in San Francisco next month.

In his small workshop, Mr Peebles is working feverishly