The Original Flying Flea

The Flying Flea (Pou de ciel in French) is a small aircraft whose original design originates from the 1930s.

The Flying Flea is a creation of a French inventor Henri Mignet. Mignet had failed to be accepted as a pilot and decided to build his own plane. Between 1931 and 1933 he tested and built prototypes in Paris and tested them in a large field northeast of the city. According to his later book, Le Sport de l'Air, he successfully flew the first successful model, HM-14, in September 10, 1933. He successfully demonstrated it at 1934 and published the plans and instructions in a book.

Mignet made the aircraft intentionally simple. Flying Flea is essentially a single-seat light monoplane built of wood and fabric. Original design has two-axis controls stick, 18 feet pivoting front wing, 13-feet fixed, tandem rear wing and simple rudder. The propeller was powered by small motorcycle or car engine. Mignet claimed that anyone who could build a packing case and drive a car could fly a Flying Flea.

Numerous enthusiasts in Europe and the USA began to build their own aircraft. In France there were at least 500. Average cost of the materials was then $350.

However, in the beginning many Fleas crashed when pilots could not recover from shallow dives, resulting in some deaths. The Royal Aircraft Establishment in the United Kingdom and the French Air Ministry investigated the design and suggested improvements that increased the safety of the aircraft. By 1939 there were thousands of Flying Fleas but in other circles the aircraft retained its dangerous reputation.

The Shuttleworth Collection (UK) has an example in its collection of historic aircraft.

Modern aircraft enthusiasts have continued to build their own aircraft and vary the original design over the years. French enthusiasts hold an annual meeting every June.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Flying
• Flea
• Pou
• de
• ciel
• Henri
• Mignet
• aviation
• history
• airplane
• aircraft

[emforty2]

50mpg wow better than most Hybrid cars

i want one ! fly above traffic

but with its reputation i think i need airbags all around

[chrismofer]

ha ha. he said giant stick.

[flatcoat2]

In the 1960's there was a garage in Doncaster, S Yorkshire, UK (Claybourns,- BMC & Singer dealer, Waterdale) had one of these or one very similar hung up under the roof of the showroom. It was always called The Flying Flea.

[Dunroamin2]

I have my grandfather's copy of Mignet's book, which includes the instructions on how to build and fly it. However, I also met Bernard Collins, who held the long distance record for the Flea, and swore never to go near one again. I've never been tempted!

[homebuiltindoorplane]

@BDNeon hahahahah!!!

[zarquon53]

@BDNeon The Front wing proved to be too small - you can see that in the film of Mr A in the dark aeroplane , you can see it struggling for lift as he takes off .

Later " Fleas " were modified to have the wing about 4 feet wider which made them much better .

WW2 intervened to stop all this fun , and flying as sport recreation never recovered from that in the UK .

As a youth , i read a book which set out how to build , and fly , one of these - main thing was , it said you couldn't stall them .

[repawnd]

Wow, flying with only 10 horsepower, that's not bad even by today's standards.

[TurbineDogSevenFour]

Huh, that flea has the same rocking sway my little RC one does. hrm.

[tjblues01]

@emforty2

50mpg -- but for one person only. If you take passenger to your "Honda Accord" a fuel economy will drop, but for sure not in a half. When you do those kind of calculations you have to thing about 3 factors: payload mass, distance and used fuel.

BTW. I want one too! but not b/c it is fuel efficient :-)))

[freeman8128]

When & were did the last one fly?

[BDNeon]

Remarkably crash prone plane.

As one observer noted "The flying flea had the potential to bring the airplane to the everyday man on the street, usually by falling on him"