Flying Flea

www.burnsgarages.co.uk

Already mentioned elswhere in this website is the fact that Burns Garages in the person of Harold Burns, the second generation in the Company, constructed and flew a "flying flea".

Frenchman Henri Mignet designed and built a tiny tandem winged aeroplane in 1933. It took him only 30 days to build working a 10 hour day. He called it the Pou de Ciel (bug of the sky) but it became better known throughout the english speaking world as the Flying Flea.

Mignet wrote a book of instructions for the D.I.Y. aircraft builder and hundreds of them were started throughout the western world but not as many were completed and very few actually flew. However there were a small number of fatal accidents which led to wind-tunnel test which revealed a design flaw and then to a ban on flying the plane. Mignet came up with several modifications but it seems that the machine was never very airworthy.

Fleas were mostly powered by motorcycle engines, Douglas and Scott being the most popular but reports of water cooled Austin 7 engines were not unheard of.

At Burns Garage in Congleton work was seriously underway in the Park Street workshop. The frame completed the search went on for engines. The flat twin Douglas 500cc and then 750cc, chain driven and then direct drive was I think the sequence of engine choice.

Propellers were constructed with the help of Walter Worrall from the timber yard accross the road and many were tried and tested. Balancing was the major problem.

Proudly I can say that our flea flew on a number of occasions as reported in the local newspaper from various locations around Congleton and then at Stoke on Trent's airfield at Meir. It did crash into a tree at Somerford Park and Harold Burns the pilot suffered a nasty cut over his eye. We have photographs of the Burns Flea in flight and they are also available at Congleton Museum. www.congletonmuseum.co.uk

Bringing the story up to date, in 1992 a replice was built by local enthusiast Ken Fern. The finished product was exhibited for a while in our showroom but we are not aware of its whereabouts at the moment.