Henri Mignet is in France the "Saint Patron" of the
homebuilders. I guess that he should be the saint patron of the
homebuilders worldwide! Why? Well, he is the first to make a
airplane accessible to the man of the street. In 1934, he wrote in
his book "Le sport de l' Air" how he designed and built his
"Pou du Ciel" or "Flying Flea". Inside the book
all plans were available to built yourself this remarkable, small
airplane. The book became very popular. More than 6000 copies were
sold and it was translated in several languages.
The story of Henri Mignet would be ideal for a movie. It has it
all. Victory, tragedy and rebirth. Let's start in 1934.
Henri Mignet wrote his book "Le sport de l' Air". He himself
never thought it would be such a success. But a reprint was needed
and the book was read worldwide (From France to USA to Japan. Like
I said ... worldwide). Many people, who always thought that flying
was something for the rich, had a possibility to built their own
airplane. Many, many men began building their "Pou du Ciel".
Most of the builders have never seen a airplane like the "Pou du
Ciel" before. It has two nearly identical wings. No horizontal
tail! And it has a very strange system of steering. To control
pitch you have to rotate the COMPLETE front wing! The airplane is
very small and it is completely out of wood (beside some metal
connections and supports). But nobody feared the new system. Mignet
did not only have a bright mind when it comes to airplanes, but he
is a excellent writer too. Inside his book he tells in easy words
why he choose to design the airplane this way and what the benefits
would be. There was also a chapter about how you should learn
YOURSELF to fly it. And he wrote his own experiences he made
himself in a HM14. All that gave the builder confidence that he was
building a excellent airplane. A airplane made for a beginning
pilot. Yes, even steering was simplified. All you had was a stick
in your hands. No more pedals! And if you read the book, it tells
that it steers like a car. Hold the stick left and you go left. It
sounds simple. I experienced it is.
If you want to read more about how this airplane steers and how
this rotating front wing (named by Henri Mignet as "Aile
Vivante" (=Living Wing)) works, click here.
If you have a bit of time and you want to know ALL about the Pou
du Ciel, go to the site of our friend "HMS Foundation" (http://www.flyingflea.com.ar/home/lecture)
and read the English translation of the entire
book "Le Sport de l' Air". But beware ... it is a
translation of the 1934 edition. So, read the texts, they are
goooood. But ... don't use the plans. They are BAAAAAD.
I once made a print of the HM-14 page and after reading it, I was
75% convinced that I wanted a Pou du Ciel. Seeing one made it
100%.
Another thing that is so wonderfull in this Pou du Ciel is the
fact that it cannot stall. Many pilots lost their
lives due to stall at low heights. But what is this stall? Well, a
wing glides through air and both sides of the wing (up and below)
touch the air. If the wing flies slower and the wings front comes
up higher and higher, you will make it harder and harder for the
air to keep touching the wing at the upperside of the wing.
Problems will happen when the air loses contact with the wing. If
the air no longer touches the wing, all lifting force will
disappear. And ... the airplane will fall as a brick. If you have
this situation flying at low altitude, you have a major problem.
Recovery from this situation is not always possible due to the low
height. ... Many crashed and died.
But the Pou du Ciel is different. It has its own way of
preventing the stall. In my first flight in a Pou du Ciel (it was a
HM1000 Balerit), I asked the pilot to demonstrate me this situation
in flight. Without asking more details, the pilot reduces the
engine power and started pulling the stick. The nose came up slowly
and than ...it happened. The wings started making noise and they
seemed to vibrate. I knew what was happening. We were in the
stallzone, but we were not stalling. If a airplane stalls the nose
of the airplane sinks like a brick. And you start diving to the
earth. In this flight our nose stayed up. Besides the noise from
the wings, all seemed calm. The expression on the pilots face told
me that all was OK. He pointed at the altitude meter. We were going
down ... rather fast. We were in the parachutal
descent. The rate of descent is like a parachute from WW2.
Really feels safe.
If we were flying a conventional airplane who could stall, we
were now diving towards earth. An experience I want to avoid at all
times. I prefer to keep it safe. The easy steering and the
stallfree flying made me choose a Pou du Ciel as my first own
airplane. I didn't build it myself. I am the proud owner of a
construction made by Bernard Domont, a French very experienced and
know homebuilder.
This picture comes from a amateur book by Alain
Blondiau. It handles the history of the "Pou du Ciel" in
Belgium alone. Alain is working on his second edition of his book.
He told me that he will stop his research at the Pou du Ciel
number 200.
Just imagine ... nearly 200 Flying Fleas (some not completed) in
a small country like Belgium!
A true "Flying Flea" fever rose all over the world. Very soon
several HM14s were flying. Everybody had a great time. Henri Mignet
crossed several times the channel to be beside the English builders
and flyers. But than it happened... Several Flying Fleas crashed.
It seemed that in some circumstance they started diving. A dive
which ended unavoidably in a crash. I think it were about 7
airplanes that crashed. If you have the exact numbers, please
contact me. The result was tremendous. Several countries grounded
all HM14s and several builders lost faith in their project. It was
a dark time for Henri Mignet. The reputation of the "Pou du Ciel"
or "Flying Flea" was crushed ... and you still can feel it
today.
Henri Mignet used all he could to find out what went wrong.
Inside a windtunnel the teething problems came to view. If you want
to read about them and about the way they solved the problems click
here.
In 1936 Henri Mignet published a new edition of his book "Le
sport de l' Air". Inside the book were the reworked plans. Those
plans are still used these days. The HM14 of 1936 no longer has the
problems, which caused the grounding of the "Flying Flea". It is as
safe as you can get any other plane. But the damage was already
done. The Flying Flea was no longer popular. Pity, the design is
totally safe now.
Henri Mignet didn't stop designing. He made several other
designs. All on the same concept, but he introduced the
folding wings in 1944. So there no longer is need
for a hangar. You keep the airplane at home ...in your
garage.
I made small drawings of some of them. But be sure ... I still
need to draw a lot of them.
The "Saint Patron", as he is called, died too
early. But his work is not lost. His son and nephew have started a
firm, Mignet Aviation, in which they make new designs. But they are
still based on the concept of the old HM14. The HM1000 "Balerit"
and the HM1100 "Corduan" are ultralights. Both are two-seaters. The
firm was very active. They no longer worked on plans, they build
complete ultralight airplanes. They stopped activity in 2005.
But besides the firm of the Mignet family, there is a whole
group of "pouducielists" working with plans of the old designs.
Each years there are meetings with "Flying Fleas". The largest one
is in the south of France. I once visited it. A nice, international
group of builders, flyers and designers. Some enthusiasts are
working on new designs. But they will not be the first. Several
made new designs, based on the work of Henri Mignet. If you want to
see some of them, click here.
The work of Henri Mignet will never get lost, I guess. Why?
Well, it is a good way to get yourself in the air. All you need to
be able to do is ... making a crate. If you can do that, a HM14 or
other HM can be built and flown by you.
From experience I can tell that the group of "Pou du Ciel"
enthusiasts is the most gentle group I have ever met. You can
contact them in several groups on the internet. If you can write
and read French, go visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pouguide. They
have a personal site at http://pou.guide.free.fr . For the English
spoken visitors, i guide you towards a nice friendly group
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flyingflea.
Both groups want to make it possible that all, who want, can
fly.
A good saying would be:
"All for Flying Flea, a Flying Flea for All".
"Tous pour le Pou du Ciel, un Pou du Ciel pour Tous".
Here are some links to other "Pou du Ciel" or "Flying Flea"
sites. Hope you like them.
If you want to fly these Flying Fleas in a simulator, go to the
site "Jolly Roger" at http://jolly.roger.2.free.fr/Simulation.htm,
there you find it all (a link to the free sim-software and the
zipped model files).