The Canadian HM-8 Replica Project
by
(Three
View Drawing by Paul Fournier)
HOW IT STARTED
While traveling in
SOME HISTORY
Some background for those readers who are not
familiar with the history of the Flying Flea: Mignet, after designing and
building 7 prototypes of various configurations had designed and flown a small
monoseater, "une avionette", the HM-8. This occurred before he
discovered the staggered-wing formula which should have revolutionized the
aviation world, and hopefully one day will.
In 1929 he published a hand-written book describing his philosophy of flight and which contained the plans of the HM-8 with accurate building instructions.
About two hundred aviation fans, for which
purchasing a factory-built airplane was financially impossible, built and flew
their own HM-8. The machine flew quite well, but, as every classical aircraft,
was not stall-proof. One day, Mignet crashed his HM-8, fortunately without
injuring himself. This incident made him realize that the HM-8 would never be
the totally safe airplane he was dreaming of and he burnt his own idol!
Henri Mignet went back to the drawing board,
built a small wind tunnel, and carried out extensive research. 3 years later
the first Flying Flea, a tailless plane using the slot effect between wings
was flying. Consequently, the HM-8 is now almost forgotten, which is a pity;
it was a very nice light plane, contemporary and comparable to the Heath
Parasol and to the Pietenpol. It triggered the homebuilt movement in
The Mignet history would be incomplete without
including the HM-8 and we were quite sorry not to have one to show to the many
visitors of the HMS Pou collection.
WHO WILL BUILD IT?
Back home, I recall the woodworking workshops
a few friends and I organized in
I discussed it with the HMS staff, who
immediately accepted the idea and asked me to make the necessary contacts.
I got in touch with André Létourneau, who
was very interested. He loves vintage aircraft and his own project, an
amphibian Osprey II, was close to making its first flight after 14 years of
meticulous construction.
I gave him a copy of the handwritten book
"Comment j'ai construit mon avionette". I also gave one to Paul
Fournier, another member of the Piper-Cub workshops team, an amateur builder
and a talented draftsman who had already built a Zenair CH 250. We scheduled a
meeting for the following Wednesday.
Both of them agreed to do the job, André Létourneau was going to do the woodworking and Paul Fournier was going to refresh and update the plans, build the ribs templates and fabricate the metal parts.
(Page 1 of 14)