An interactive exhibit featuring life-size models of Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old inventions and machines opens in Times Square today.

Although best known for painting the masterpiece “Mona Lisa,” da Vinci also designed a fantastical array of futuristic flying machines, robots, weapons and mechanical devices.

Highlights of the exhibit include the “Great Kite” flying machine, a working prototype of his “Self-Propelled Cart, and physical models of his mechanical bat and lion.

Visitors can use touch screens to turn the artist’s numerous sketches into three-dimensional models.

“Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop” runs through March, 2010 at The Discovery Times Square Exposition.