16 AUGUST 1935, Page 2

Everyman's Aeroplane '

The achievement of the 'French aviator, M. Henri Mignet, in crossing the Channel on Tuesday in his so-called Flying Flea may prove historic. Flying may never become as common as motoring. It probably never will. But hitherto expense has been as much an obstacle to the development of private flying as a normal means of transit as the absence. of adequate air-ports and other ground facilities. If the ' Flying Flea' is a practical proposition, capable of a 'speed of seventy to eighty miles an hour; with less' petrol and oil consumption than a baby car, and purchasable for about £70, then the number of private owners may be expected to increase swiftly and substantially. New standards of safety and navigability will have to be established fot baby aeroplanes, but the first lesson to be drawn fioni the Flying Flea's' thannel flight is that municipalities must lose no time in providing suitable landing-grounds on as accessible sites as possible. They will all be needed, and sooner than was realised before M. Mignet showed what his baby 'plane could do;