Spontoon Island
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The "Flying Flea"
a home-built aircraft of French
design
-commentary by Simon Barber-
The "Flying Flea" Amelia Bourne-Phipps was so fond of, was a French
attempt
at the "Every citizen can build their own Aircraft in their garage"
idea.
An unconventional design, it featured a highly staggered biplane wing
layout,
and was rather deficient in power and stability.
In fact, the only time it was 100% stable was in its characteristic
"Graveyard dive",
which was totally unrecoverable. Fortunately, most backyard builders
of the Flying Flea
built theirs too heavy and underpowered to leave the ground, so the
problem rarely arose.)