Mignet HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel (Flying Flea) — Builder Book PDF

The aircraft that launched the homebuilt movement

In 1933, French engineer Henri Mignet published Le Sport de l’Air and gave the world the HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel — the Flying Flea. His radical tandem-wing design used no aileron, banked on rudder input, and could be built in a garage from spruce, plywood and fabric for a few hundred dollars. Within two years, hundreds of Fleas were flying across Europe, North America and Australia. The HM.14 is, by any measure, the design that made amateur aircraft building a movement.

This product is the Air League of the British Empire English-language edition — "Aviation for the Amateur: The Flying Flea (Pou-du-Ciel) — How to Build and Fly It" — Mignet’s complete builder book translated for the UK and Commonwealth market. The book combines theory, design rationale, materials specifications and step-by-step plans into a single self-contained document.

Design specifications

• Configuration: Single-seat tandem-wing monoplane (no ailerons; rudder + variable-incidence front wing for control)
• Wingspan: ~22 ft (front wing) / ~18 ft (rear wing)
• Length: ~11 ft
• Empty weight: ~220–250 lb
• Powerplant: Originally Aubier-Dunne, ABC Scorpion, Carden-Ford or similar; modern builds use Volkswagen, half-VW, Rotax or two-cycle conversions (25–45 hp typical)
• Cruise: ~55 mph
• Construction: Wood spar & rib, fabric covered, simple welded steel undercarriage

What you get in the PDF

• Mignet’s full theoretical introduction — why the tandem-wing layout, how the controls work
• Materials list, timber selection, wire and fitting specifications
• Step-by-step fuselage construction, broken into discrete bays and sub-assemblies
• Front and rear wing build sequences with rib templates and spar diagrams
• Undercarriage, tail group, and control linkage drawings
• Covering, doping and finishing instructions in the period idiom
• Engine installation guidance and propeller selection notes
• First-flight and pilot-handling sections written by Mignet himself

Who this is for

The Flying Flea is a serious commitment, not a weekend toy. It is suited to amateur builders with basic woodworking and fabric-covering experience who want a low-cost, low-power, low-and-slow single-seater with genuine historical credentials. Modern builders typically modify the original 1933 design with later Mignet revisions (post-1936 stability corrections), an updated engine and improved control rigging — the original book remains the canonical reference for the airframe itself.

About this document

The Air League English-edition Flying Flea book has been openly shared by the Mignet family and the homebuilt community for decades and circulates freely on the Internet Archive. The underlying 1933/34 publication is well past current copyright duration in its country of origin. Plansforu.com supplies this scan as a builder reference document for personal study and amateur construction projects. Always verify modern airworthiness requirements with your national aviation authority (LAA, EAA, FFPLUM, etc.) before flying any homebuilt design.

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