Calling all Flying Flea experts!

…An inverted Luton Minor wing can be seen in one of the pictures of the ‘second Flea’…

As the Luton is obviously dismantled, perhaps that’s the source of the Flea’s Anzani…

Thanks for identifying that wing, Pelagius. I suspected it might be from Carine’s Minor, which crashed in early March 1939, but I hadn’t got round to comparing it with another picture of a Minor.

And yes, it could be the source of the Anzani. I wonder where the engine is now. We’ve got no information as to the fate of the Flea.

Jenna, Dr Armour was involved in some design work with the Luton Hornet aircraft, according to his letter. His address was Crichton House, Anstruther. Dr Armour’s letter to the Flea builder, Mr Craine, is dated February 1939, ie the month before the Minor crashed. It refers to Craine’s difficulty in getting the Flea unstuck. I wonder if he fitted the Anzani to the Flea after the Minor crashed.

I am now convinced that this Flea with its movable rear wing and lengthened fuselage, neither of which I had spotted, is more than likely a different aircraft to the one built in 1936 by Mr Carine. This increases the number of Manx-built aircraft by a fair percentage.

Interesting you say that as I tracked the prototype Luton Minor back to a farm in Anstruther… its also not widely published but CH Latimer-Needham was using a flying flea he owned for the basis of the Luton Minor prototype built here at Barton in the Clay (1935) which he modified (suspension being built by Grice & Young)

The owner of the ‘first Flea’, Mr. Carine, also owned a Luton Minor.

An inverted Luton Minor wing can be seen in one of the pictures of the ‘second Flea’.

As the Luton is obviously dismantled, perhaps that’s the source of the Flea’s Anzani…

One other modification to prevent the crashes was to replace the wing incidence control with a rigid push/pull rod rather than previously where a cable pulled the wing down, the up being by bungee straps from the wing leading edge to just behind the engine. In the accidents the aerodynamic loads could overcome the bungee pull and control was lost. The example in the picture has rigid rods, but the rear wing control is new to me.

Richard

Good article here http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936%20-%202831.html?search=Pou%20De%20Ciel

After the crashes, Henri Mignet came up with a solution including making the rear wing moveable and a longer fuselage so the wings don’t overlap. The plans and details of which are included in updated later versions of Mignet’s ‘the book’ and this could be a Flea built to those spec’s. Although by that time the CAA ban on such things was in force.

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A Dr M.D.S Armour from Anstruther,Fife had G-AEOJ with a 30 HP Anzani. Reg 21/10/36 flown at Scone and from a field at Carnbie. Modified undercarriage fitted. Abandoned and broken up during the war.
Source: “British Homebuilt Aircraft Since 1920 MAPS 1975.

Looking at those bell cranks the rear wing will move in oposition to the main wing. This would, I expect, make the controls very sensitive.
Also looking at the photos I think the fuselage is longer than the standard Flea, and as lengthening the fuselage was one of the design recommendations that came out of Farnborough’s investigations of the Flea. Could this controllable rear wing be another?

It could well be movable. Along with the photos we were given some correspondence from a Dr Armour which referred to modifications which various people had tried out. All very scary trial and error stuff!

It appears to be modified – the rear wing has got variable incidence??

Roger Smith.