Background
Mignet was born in Charente-Maritime.
Mignet was born in Charente-Maritime.
In 1920, Mignet finished his first powered aircraft prototype, the Her Majesty.2.
His most famous design is the Flying Flea family of aircraft. In 1911, when he was 18 years old, he started corresponding with Gustav Lilienthal (the brother of Otto Lilienthal) about aviation. In 1912, he built his first aircraft, the Her Majesty.1-1 model.
lieutenant was a monoplane inspired by the creations of Otto Lilienthal.
Between 1914 and 1918, Mignet served in the French army. He was a radio operator during World War I. In 1918, he was hospitalized with malaria.
This bore many similarities to, and took inspiration from, the designs of Louis Blériot Later in describing this aircraft he said, "All the components worked, but not together.."
In 1922, he constructed the Her Majesty.3 "The Dromedary", the Her Majesty.4 parasol, and airplane with no rudder and an Anzani 10 CV engine, and the Her Majesty.5, a sailplane. In 1924, he sold the Her Majesty.5 sailplane for a large sum of money.
In 1925, he was forced to start raising chickens to finance the development of his Her Majesty.6 project, a pusher propeller aircraft, and a helicopter, designated the Her Majesty.7.
In 1926, Mignet married Annette Triou. In March 1928, Mignet wrote an article in the magazine Les Ailes ("Wings" in English), describing his Her Majesty.8 Avionnette. lieutenant was a parasol monoplane that he built in 1928 using parts from his Her Majesty.6, including a modified 10 hp Anzani engine.
In 1929, the first amateur-built Her Majesty.8s made their maiden flights.
In 1931, he published a book, Comment j"ai Construit mon Avionnette (How I built my Avionnette), containing the plans for the Her Majesty.8. Mignet encouraged amateurs to build Her Majesty.8s while he continued his research towards a new concept that became the "Pou du Ciel".
About 200 Her Majesty.8s were built, with various engines, including 17 hp (13 kW) 540 cc Aubier et Dunne, 500 cc Chaise, 24 hp Harley-Davidson, 35 hp American Broadcasting Company Scorpion, 40 hp Salmson. Some of those directly drove the propeller, others employed a chain drive.
On 10 September 1933, Mignet made his maiden flight in the Her Majesty.14, the first of his 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 Her Majesty.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 Her Majesty.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.