DAILY DEMONSTRATIONS AT 11AM, FREE WITH ADMISSION!
The car seen here is one-of-one; it was designed, built, and raced by Frazier Sibbald, George Olsen, and Howard Bliss, all of California. Sibbald was the racer, Olsen the designer (he went on to build groundbreaking racing sailboats and founded a surfboard company) and it is believed that Bliss was the engineer and fabricator. Being […]
Shirdlu BMW H-Mod Racer- 1962 Read More »
The little-known and rarely seen BMW 700 Coupé is arguably one of the most important models in BMW’s post-war history. The first of the series and highest-selling variant in the 700 family (Coupé, Luxus LS, Limosin, Cabrio), the 700 Coupé was the brainchild of Austrian BMW importer and racer Wolfgang Denzel. Denzel convinced the
BMW 700 Sports Coupe- 1960 Read More »
Mia was a very ambitious, all-electric vehicle manufacturer located in Cerizay, France. The state-of-the-art, fully-reconfigured (former Hueliez coachbuilders) plant employed 16 designers and 80 engineers, including former VW and Bertone design executives. Pre-production Mias were introduced at the Geneva Auto Show in 2011, and later at the Frankfurt show. The Mia seen here was the
Chief designer Pierre Mignet, eldest son of Henri, the inventor of the Flying Flea, founded Mignet Aviation in 1982. 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. Like the previous HM.1000 “Balerit”, and unlike earlier Flying Fleas, the
Mignet HM.1100 Cordouan Read More »
The Flying Flea series of airplanes was designed by Henri Mignet, a French designer/builder, in 1934 and was one of the first home-built airplanes. In retrospect, his earlier designs were not deemed as safe as the later designs. Problems ranged from perceived balance problems to poor build quality. Evolution of the design led to the
Henri Mignet had been approached by the French Resistance in 1944 with a set of criteria for a small military plane. He was only able to complete a prototype, designated the HM.280 “Pou Maquis”. Plans for the HM.280 were never released. After the war, Mignet did publish the plans for a civilian version of the
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
Weight- and space-saving was the goal of Henri Mignet when designing the HM.16, itself a derivative of the earlier HM.14. At only 10 feet, 10 inches long, its short fuselage and its nose-high position give the impression that its wings are positioned at too great an angle of incidence (the angle of the wing relative
Mignet HM.160 Bebe Pou (Baby Flea) Read More »
French radio engineer Henri Mignet set out in the early 1930s to design a plane that was not only easy and safe to fly, but one that could be built at home with basic skills. In November of 1934, Mignet published Le Sport de l’Air which included all the dimensions, plans, and tools needed for