trevsastar

By trevsastar

Day 200/23. Louse of the Sky (Flying Flea)

The Flying Flea (French Pou du Ciel.   literal in french - 'Louse of the Sky') is a large family of light homebuilt aircraft first flown in 1933.
The odd name comes from the French nickname for the Ford Model T automobile: Pou de la Route, or "Louse of the Road", because Henry Ford's economy car was so common. Henri Mignet dreamed of creating a Model T of the air, an airplane for the common man, hence the term Pou du Ciel. In English, the term became Flying Flea. It was tricky to fly and there were many, many accidents. The control was through flexing the wings, there were no ailerons. Supposedly, once you stalled it, there was no way to escape from the stall and it would plummet to the ground.
This example is today at our museum.

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