I am selling a reprint of one of the most unusual and joyful books in aviation literature 

The Flying Fleas book is a reprint and a translation, the original book was written in French. The book is in an eBook format that can be read on any computer with the free Adobe reader. If you don't have the Adobe reader you can download it for free at Adobe.com

 I have several extras of this wonderful book if you want more than one

Please read what the cover says about the ebook below. I have also included the Table of contents and a few short excerpts from the book. It is truly a fun book to read  and put a big smile on my face.

Table of Contents

Preface for Second Edition Introduction Chapter I

The Spell of The Air Chapter II

Wireless Aviation

Chapter III

Why? Chapter IV

Aero-Technique

Chapter V

How I Designed the

Flying Flea

Chapter VI

Experiments Chapter VII

How I Built the

Flying Flea

Chapter VIII

Materials

Chapter IX

To Work

Chapter X

Wings!Wings!

Chapter XI

The Engine

Chapter XII

The Air Screw

Chapter XIII

Management of

the Engine Chapter XIV

How to Fly the Flea Appendix Corrections to Fig 139, 143,144,183

 Text from back cover of book

In the early part of the Twentieth Century this little homemade airplane book by Henri Mignet made the world go "aeroplane" crazy!

People at that time were still being thrilled and excited daily by the magic of aviation, when along came this little book that claimed that any man or woman with a few dollars worth of lumber and cloth and an old motorcycle engine could build their own airplane ,The Flying Flea, and in a months time take to the blue sky and far horizon.

People went crazy! Flying Flea mania swept the globe!

Using this book and a little gumption, Mignet boldly claimed and proved through his own flying exploits you could soon be flying like a bird above the clouds with your spirit set free! You only had to use his experience and information in this book, which is wildly over the top with exuberant self confidence. Nearly eighty years later The Flying Flea is still one of the most joyful and enthusiastic books on aviation you will ever read.

Mignet’s design was and still is very unique. He eliminated two of the most deadly faults of aviation; his planes, due to their unique design, will not stall or spin. Mignet encouraged hundreds of persons to build their own Flying Flea and take to the sky, but unfortunately many of them did not follow the instructions exactly and dozens suffered fatal crashes.

Soon after Flying Flea mania swept the world most countries banned his airplane. Henri quickly did tests to find the problem and improved his design. Mignet spent the rest of his life creating new and better small planes using the same amazing design that will not spin or stall. Unfortunately, due to the early fatalities, some people still consider the HM14 a death trap, while pilots that fly his later and newer designs often consider them to be the safest planes in the sky.

The debate continues to this day about Mignet’s work and contribution to flight, but there is no disagreement about his book, The Flying Flea and How To Build It, is still one of the most joyful, inspiring and refreshingly original works in aviation literature.

(excerpts from book)

INTRODUCTION ......

Readers, my correspondents, there are many of you who are of my way of thinking, you have allowed me to measure your enthusiasm. You have demanded this book of me. Here it is.

The Flying Flea, No. 4, begun on the 6th August, 1933, took off from the ground on the 6th September. After three months of adjustment in the open, it came back to the workshop in good order after ten hours flight; not ten hours of cruising in calm weather under a blue sky, but ten hours of difficult trials, ten hours of flight in midwinter, in bad weather, in rain and in storm. Ugly clouds have scudded. under its wheels. Fatigue and excessive cold gave me hallucinations in flight. The Flea brought me back. A short life, but a life spent in hard exercises. A proved formula.

What have I to fear? The failure of my campaign? Oh, well, I can't help it; it has got out of hand. it is no longer I, Mignet, who speaks, it is a force which. swells, of which I am but an echo, and which is everywhere. And I proclaim this force since nobody makes:

a move, since others better instructed than I, and more qualified in science, in the art of the air, sleep in a stagnation which they call the "crisis and which I name "blindness."

Build, my friends. Go right ahead. The question, has never been presented; let's present it; it will insist on a solution. This solution will certainly come, because it interests not only our amateurish hobbies but the actual progress of human science. No man of law, no ministerial paper scribbler, no policeman can stand up against the laws of progress

Long Live the Sport of the Air.

I go right ahead and listen to no one. Will my, idea succeed? How many people will think me a mad man? How many, also, will be with me? I know.

All the worse for the former, all the better for the latter. Whatever happens, what will happen is of the greatest interest.

Oh, how beautiful is our Aviation!

The Flying Flea has passed its tests. The perfect formula? Far from it. It can certainly be improved upon. I leave it to amateurs to alter its details, to improve its flying qualities. I have brought out the model. As it stands, it's quite good enough.

To aim at perfection would have prolonged my game of promising publication of my book from quarter to quarter . . . that has been going on for many years. . . . I hardly dare believe that I have reached the last month.

To bring out an original model, even a simple thing like this, is not done as easily " one paints a theatrical scene or improvises an illusion on the cinema screen. I am pleased this is now in the past to certify that everything set down here has been tried out, has been lived, has been felt, has been thought out, has passed through the sieve of trials, which have been at times very severe. The isolation, the living in camp the heat, the cold, the lack of funds, alas . . . the boiled potatoes and the rice cooked in water. . . . I had to stick to my road since at the end of it was the Flea. Without false shame I admit it. What does it matter to me? All that is in the past. Ahead of us life is cheerful: the machine is small but good..." It does fly."

In my book I put all my confidence, all my faith. It is the expression of a candid man, of a wild man who is aghast at the useless rush of the century, but who loves aviation, as he loves his children, as he loves his wife, with all his heart and soul.

THE FLYING FLEA

CHAPTER I

THE SPELL OF THE AIR

Why can one not, once one has been near it, free oneself from the influence of Aviation?

It is a new era which has come to us. Is there a new air record? or an air catastrophe? The papers are full of flaring headlines and a dispatch of a few lines is expanded to columns of print.

Why is this? Is it the work of journalists short of copy? Certainly not! It is done to satisfy the worldwide interest in air matters. It is not unhealthy curiosity, it is the response of our inner beings, an instinct old as man.

THE ATTRACTION OF ADVENTURE

We pursue adventure on the roads through the lure of speed. But the roads are no longer roads to romance but carry a glut of vehicles past signposts and policemen. We fret because we cannot pass a lorry; we return at night blinded by other motorists and terrified of hitting a cyclist. Any adventure we may have lead to the police courts! I have no use for the road.

But the air! there we have it! Speed, the sense of being a navigator and an explorer, the freedom of wide spaces, adventure aviation puts all of them at our disposal.

Everyone who has flown is bitten: everyone wants to fly again

I read this book and it is hard to put down. I had a big grin after reading it. All of the pages are here but some of the illustrations seem to be missing from this volume which may be a good thing because you will want to start right away and build one of these little flying machines after you read this book and you probably shouldn't do that. It is probably better and safer to get a set of newer and improved plans.

Henri Mignet, and later his son, came up with many newer airplanes that are better than the Flea, like the HM293 and the HM1000 but if you want ton build a Flea you can still write to the Mignet family  in France as the designs of Mignet and his son are still for sale or at least that is what I have been told.

This wonderful little gem of a book comes with a full money back guarantee if it does not put a smile on your face or if  you are unhappy for any reason.

 Please email me if you have any problems with any of my items. If my customer is not happy then I am not happy.

FREE SHIPPING AND HANDLING in the USA

Thanks again,

Robb Moffett