Antoine Magnan

Antoine Magnan (13 June 1881 – 5 March 1938)[1] was a French zoologist and aeronautical engineer who studied the flight of insects and birds for possible lessons to apply to powered flight. He is best known for a remark in his 1934 book Le Vol des Insectes ("Insect Flight") that insect flight was impossible.

Antoine Magnan
Born(1881-06-13)13 June 1881
Paris, France
Died5 March 1938(1938-03-05) (aged 56)
NationalityFrench
Known forSuggesting insect flight was impossible
Scientific career
FieldsZoology, Aeronautics
InstitutionsCollège de France
Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes

Life and work

Magnan was born in the central 7th arrondissement of Paris on 13 June 1881.[1] He qualified as a doctor of medicine and of science, and received the diploma of superior studies in zoology. He became a professor of animal mechanics applied to aviation at the Collège de France (from 1929 to 1938),[2] and the director of the experimental morphology laboratory and the aviation laboratory at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. He was responsible to the ministries of Education, Agriculture and the Interior.[1]

Insect flight
Bumblebee in flight, although Magnan's 1934 Le Vol des Insectes suggested this was impossible
Further information: bumblebee and insect flight

The following passage appears in the introduction to Le Vol des Insectes:[3]

Tout d'abord poussé par ce qui se fait en aviation, j'ai appliqué aux insectes les lois de la résistance de l'air, et je suis arrivé avec M. Sainte-Laguë à cette conclusion que leur vol est impossible.

This translates to:

First prompted by what is done in aviation, I applied the laws of air resistance to insects, and I arrived, with Mr. Sainte-Laguë, at this conclusion that their flight is impossible.

Magnan refers to his assistant, the mathematician and engineer André Sainte-Laguë as the source of the calculations mentioned.[4][5][6]

Works
  • Le tube digestif et le Régime alimentaire des Oiseaux. Hermann, 1911.
  • Le Poids des tectrices chez les oiseaux carinatés. Imprimerie Nationale, 1912.
  • Les caractéristiques des oiseaux suivant le mode de vol: leur application a la construction des avions. Masson, 1922.
  • Le vol des oiseaux: directives que l'on peut en tirer pour l'aviation. G. Roche D'Estrez, 1922.
  • Pour voler à voile: études expérimentales sur le vol à voile des oiseaux avec l'application à l'aviation (extraits de L'air). G. Roche D'Estrez, 1923.
  • "L'Énergie interne du vent et le vol à voile". Revue generale des sciences pures et appliquees, 28 Feb 1925, v.36, pp.101–11.
  • L'Accélérographe H.M.P.: Son application à la mesure des accélérations en vol. With E. Huguenard and A. Planiol. 1926
  • Essai de Théorie Du Poisson. With André Sainte-Laguë. Services Techniques de l'Aéronautique, 1929.
  • Les caractéristiques géométriques et physiques des poissons avec contribution à l'étude de leur équilibre statique et dynamique, Volumes 1-2. Masson, 1929.
  • Hodographes et polaires d'avions, 1930.
  • Étude des trajectoires et des qualités aérodynamiques d'un avion par l'emploi d'un appareil cinématographique de bord. With André Sainte-Laguë. E. Blondel La Rougery, 1932.
  • "Sur le poids relatif des muscles moteurs des ailes chez les insectes." With C. Perrilliat-Botonet. C. R. Acad. Sci. v.195, pp.559–561.
  • Cinématographie jusqu'à 12000 vues par seconde avec application à l'étude du vol des insectes. Hermann, 1932.
  • Sur l'excédant de puissance des oiseaux. Hermann, 1933.
  • Le Vol des Insectes ("Insect Flight"). Volume 1 of Locomotion chez les animaux ("Locomotion in Animals"), Hermann, 1934.
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References
  1. "Antoine Magnan (1881-1938)". Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  2. "Annuaire du College de France 2007-2008" (PDF). College de France. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-12-22.
  3. Magnan, Antoine (1934). Le Vol des Insectes. Hermann.
  4. "The bumblebee story can be traced back to a 1934 book by entomologist Antoine Magnan, who refers to a calculation by his assistant André Sainte-Laguë, who was an engineer. The conclusion was presumably based on the fact that the maximum possible lift produced by aircraft wings as small as a bumblebee's wings and traveling as slowly as a bee in flight would be much less than the weight of a bee."Dickinson, M (2001). "Solving the mystery of insect flight". Scientific American. 284 (6): 48–57. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0601-48. PMID 11396342.
  5. Jay Ingram (2001). The Barmaid's Brain. Aurum Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 1-85410-633-3.
  6. Dickinson, Michael (August 2001). "Le vol des insectes". Pour la Science. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
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