Daily demonstrations at 11AM, FREE with admission!

Please note that the cars or exhibit items shown in this database are part of our collection but may not be on display when you visit.

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Flying

Avid Catalina

Avid Catalina

Avid Aircraft was an American company that built and sold homebuilt kit airplanes. The company was started in 1983 by Dean Wilson, and was initially based in Idaho, moving to Montana in 1998. 

Mignet HM.1000 Balerit- 1992

Mignet HM.1000 Balerit- 1992

Mignet Aviation was founded in 1984. The chief designer was Pierre Mignet, eldest son of Henri, the inventor of the Flying Flea.

Mignet HM.1100 Cordouan

Mignet HM.1100 Cordouan

The culmination of the Flying Flea design came in 1996 with their introduction of this model, the HM.1100 “Cordouan”, named for a famous French lighthouse. The HM.1100 is equipped with ailerons on the rear wing, so that it can be controlled in three axes (yaw, pitch, and roll).

 

Mignet HM.14

Mignet HM.14

In November of 1934, Mignet published Le Sport de l'Air which included all the dimensions, plans, and tools needed for readers to build their own HM.14, the first of the Flying Fleas, or Pou du Ciel (literally translated as “Louse of the Sky” in French).

Mignet HM.160 Bebe Pou (Baby Flea)

Mignet HM.160 Bebe Pou (Baby Flea)

Weight- and space-saving was the goal of Henri Mignet when designing the HM.16, itself a derivative of the earlier HM.14. Even though Mignet did fly the HM.16, he himself did not feel it was very safe. He never sold the plans and therefore never authorized anyone else to fly this model.

Mignet HM.290E

Mignet HM.290E

The HM.280-290 series marked the beginning of the distinctive folding-wing design. This added weight, yet it satisfied Mignet’s intent for homebuilt planes to be stored in garages and to be able to be towed to an airfield.
 
Mignet HM.293

Mignet HM.293

Colonel Albert Eon, head of the French resistance in Brittany, approached Henri Mignet in 1944 with a set of criteria for a small military plane. Devastated by his wife’s death during the design phase, Mignet was only able to complete the prototype, designated the HM.280 “Pou Maquis” (maquis was the name given to French Resistance Fighters).

Mignet HM.360

Mignet HM.360

This particular plane is a single-seater with an enclosed cockpit. The following model, the HM.380, differed by having a side-by-side cockpit.
 
 
Mignet HM.380 Flying Flea- 1998

Mignet HM.380 Flying Flea- 1998

The Flying Flea was designed by Henri Mignet, a French designer/builder, in 1934, and was one of the first home-built airplanes. (Can be seen in hanging in the museum parking garage)

Mignet HM.8 Avionette Replica- 1931

Mignet HM.8 Avionette Replica- 1931

In 1928, Henri Mignet wrote a series of articles in the French aviation magazine Les Ailes (“Wings” in English) about the development of his new plane, the HM.8 Avionette. He described how, with little money and limited know-how, the average person could build an airplane themselves.