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. In 1936, after a number of fatal accidents, the HM.14 was tested in wind tunnels in France and in England, and a design fault was identified and corrected. The Flying Flea subsequently became a great, if controversial, success in the aviation world. The fatal accidents due to the initial, flawed, design meant that professional aircraft manufacturers were very reluctant to produce versions of the Pou. Mignet encouraged amateur-builders to construct the HM.14, but he also carried on designing further models into the 1960s, all of them based on the Flying Flea concept. Mignet died, aged 71, in Pessac in Gironde. References Bibliography Bowers, Peter M. 1984. Guide to Homebuilts - Ninth Edition, Chapter 7 Shattered Dreams, pages 73–78. TAB Books Ellis, Ken; Jones, Geoff. 1990. Henri Mignet and his Flying Fleas. Haynes Publishing External links People from Saintes, Charente-Maritime 1893 births 1965 deaths French aviators French aerospace engineers