Monday, October 06, 2003
The Flying Flea: Why I chose this design
About 3 years ago (2000) I was looking at homebuilt aircraft plans on eBay, with a notion that I would start such a project. I purchased a "set of plans". They consisted of 3 letter-size pieces of photocopied paper, with barely enough information to describe an aircraft, much less build one. Well, what do you expect for $10?
The plans were useless, but the design intrigued me. It was the Mignet Flying Flea design, which can be called a very staggered biplane without a tailplane, or a plane with a huge fixed tailplane. In my research into these plans I found out quite a bit about the Flying Flea, Henry Mignet, and his homebuilt designs, some dating back to the 1930's.
The attractive aspects of this design were that
- it could be built easily and quickly in an 18-foot garage
- it could be flown easily and safely
- it is completely controlled by an integrated joystick (no need for rudder pedals)
- it is considered stall- and spin-proof
- there was a more modern variation (the HM-293E) that met ultralight requirements
I decided to invest $45 and buy a binder from The Flying Flea Archives. The Webmaster, Raymond Buckland, is very helpful. Their binder of information and reprints from Henry Mignet's original 1935 book were more than enough to light the fire.
Skip forward to 2003. While tucked in the back of my mind for the intervening years, in early 2003 after discussion with my father, the Flying Flea bug kicked in again. Dad has had a dream of building and flying his own aircraft for as long as I can remember. His flying tuition (and dreams of flying) were cut short about 41 years ago by the needs of his family and the arrival of his eldest son (that would be me). What better way to pursue my goals than to do so with my father and along the way support him in realizing his dreams of flight? In a way it's a form of payback.
Dad's dream plane is the BD-4 seen here in a museum:
The BD-4 is a splendid craft, a 4-seater with excellent characteristics by all reports. Unfortunately the kits are no longer sold and completed examples are difficult to come by. Dad does have a set of plans for a from-scratch build, but this is a considerable time and money investment, and some of the specialized parts, such as the aluminum tube wing spars, are specialized and difficult to find.
Back to my HM-293E: This aircraft can be built at home with domestic tools and easy-to-find materials. The original Flying Flea could be built for about $50 (incl. engine!) back in the 1930's, and the designer claimed that anyone with sufficient skills to be able to build a wooden crate should be able to construct this plane.
From my research I would seriously question this claim (unless one is talking about a very strong, finely finished and lightweight crate - with wings!) but his point was that average woodworking skills were sufficient to accomplish this. One must remember that Henry Mignet almost single-handedly created the homebuilt aircraft craze with his Flying Flea and shattered the arrogant hold the aircraft manufacturers had on the field at the time with their claims of high-tech and expensive requirements for such an endeavor - well beyond the reach of the average Joe. In fact, the importer of this "technology" into England at the time had two of his employees build one in a weekend! Now that's my type of project.
One influential article I came across peaked my interest. It was about a 13-year-old French school kid Pierre Antoine whose summer project was to build such an airplane. You can read more about him and his project here. For an English translation, use the Altavista Website translator.
So, figuring that if a highschool kid can do this, then it must be well within the realms of my capabilities. We'll see.
Later I'll report on the location of plans, the engine, evaluating alternate aircraft projects, and getting ready to build.
The plans were useless, but the design intrigued me. It was the Mignet Flying Flea design, which can be called a very staggered biplane without a tailplane, or a plane with a huge fixed tailplane. In my research into these plans I found out quite a bit about the Flying Flea, Henry Mignet, and his homebuilt designs, some dating back to the 1930's.
The attractive aspects of this design were that
- it could be built easily and quickly in an 18-foot garage
- it could be flown easily and safely
- it is completely controlled by an integrated joystick (no need for rudder pedals)
- it is considered stall- and spin-proof
- there was a more modern variation (the HM-293E) that met ultralight requirements
I decided to invest $45 and buy a binder from The Flying Flea Archives. The Webmaster, Raymond Buckland, is very helpful. Their binder of information and reprints from Henry Mignet's original 1935 book were more than enough to light the fire.
Skip forward to 2003. While tucked in the back of my mind for the intervening years, in early 2003 after discussion with my father, the Flying Flea bug kicked in again. Dad has had a dream of building and flying his own aircraft for as long as I can remember. His flying tuition (and dreams of flying) were cut short about 41 years ago by the needs of his family and the arrival of his eldest son (that would be me). What better way to pursue my goals than to do so with my father and along the way support him in realizing his dreams of flight? In a way it's a form of payback.
Dad's dream plane is the BD-4 seen here in a museum:
The BD-4 is a splendid craft, a 4-seater with excellent characteristics by all reports. Unfortunately the kits are no longer sold and completed examples are difficult to come by. Dad does have a set of plans for a from-scratch build, but this is a considerable time and money investment, and some of the specialized parts, such as the aluminum tube wing spars, are specialized and difficult to find.
Back to my HM-293E: This aircraft can be built at home with domestic tools and easy-to-find materials. The original Flying Flea could be built for about $50 (incl. engine!) back in the 1930's, and the designer claimed that anyone with sufficient skills to be able to build a wooden crate should be able to construct this plane.
From my research I would seriously question this claim (unless one is talking about a very strong, finely finished and lightweight crate - with wings!) but his point was that average woodworking skills were sufficient to accomplish this. One must remember that Henry Mignet almost single-handedly created the homebuilt aircraft craze with his Flying Flea and shattered the arrogant hold the aircraft manufacturers had on the field at the time with their claims of high-tech and expensive requirements for such an endeavor - well beyond the reach of the average Joe. In fact, the importer of this "technology" into England at the time had two of his employees build one in a weekend! Now that's my type of project.
One influential article I came across peaked my interest. It was about a 13-year-old French school kid Pierre Antoine whose summer project was to build such an airplane. You can read more about him and his project here. For an English translation, use the Altavista Website translator.
So, figuring that if a highschool kid can do this, then it must be well within the realms of my capabilities. We'll see.
Later I'll report on the location of plans, the engine, evaluating alternate aircraft projects, and getting ready to build.
Sunday, October 05, 2003
My first Post:
What a lot to catch up on. I'll add topics as I go, recapping on aspects of project. My goal is to build a modern version of what was known as the "Flying Flea" This aircraft, the HM-293E, is an easy-to-build (I'm told) ultralight class aircraft with many characteristics that I found particularly attractive as a first-time builder and pilot. Here's a diagram of an open-cockpit version of the plane.
What a lot to catch up on. I'll add topics as I go, recapping on aspects of project. My goal is to build a modern version of what was known as the "Flying Flea" This aircraft, the HM-293E, is an easy-to-build (I'm told) ultralight class aircraft with many characteristics that I found particularly attractive as a first-time builder and pilot. Here's a diagram of an open-cockpit version of the plane.
