The Tiny Cedar Flea (a 21st century Pou du Ciel)

On 10 September 1933, Mignet made his maiden flight in the HM.14, the first of his Mignet Pou-du-Ciel (Flying Flea) designs. In 1934, he published Le Sport de l’Air and playfully called the aircraft Pou du Ciel (literally “Louse of the Sky” in French) with the intention that it would be built by amateurs.

It was a somewhat strange-looking airplane, but it’s single defining design concept has lasted more than 90 years – the front wing of the “Flea” is not fixed, but can pivot. When the pilot pulls the controls backwards, the front wing pivots nose up, and vice-versa.

Lest one think (as I did initially) that this would result in extremely large control forces, it turned out that this was not the case. The natural tendency of the wing to pivot nose-down was remarkably gentle, and entirely controllable – resulting in what Mignet called a “living wing” where the movement of the front wing could be felt gently tugging on the controls – as though it were alive.

Over the ensuing 90 years, the basic design (i.e. the “living wing”) has remained unchanged, though the rest of the design has evolved. Probably the most successful Flea design is the HM293.

Patrick Martin in his HM293, Watts Bridge, Brisbane

Flying Fleas tend to be small planes, and the TCF is no exception, measuring only 2700mm in length. But apart from its diminutive size, the design features a number of unique and intrieging features. For one thing, BOTH front and rear wings pivot in concert with each other. In addition, I’ve added a horisontal stabiliser to control the nose-down torque. All three flying surfaces are linked to a single joystick control. Simple and elegant.

This basic design is not new. It was pioneered by Juan de la Farge in Argentina, a colleage and collaborator of Henry Mignet. Together they set up production in Argentina, but the partnership did not last.

My evolution of la Farge’s “Pulga” design transforms a rather large plane into a super-mini design and makes it an open-cockpit affair. And (wait for it…) this will be the first-ever low-wing Flea! Available in either nose or taildragger.