French Flying Fleas

May 9, 2005 1:51 PM

The Cri-Cri is the world's smallest twin-engined aircraft. Designed by Michel Colomban in the '70s, it also is quite capable of aerobatics, and follows a proud tradition of ridiculously small French kit planes. And now there's even a jet-engined Cri-Cri!
posted by Skeptic (10 comments total)

Kri-Kri?Ah, no, more like KRIKRI.
posted by gurple at 1:59 PM on May 9, 2005

Cool he looks like George Jetson flying in that thing. Yikes, tho - these things really are small - this pic really demonstrates the size well.
posted by madamjujujive at 2:24 PM on May 9, 2005

The only way for that plane to be any more awesome is if it had a little Gatling gun that shot jelly beans.
posted by Divine_Wino at 2:30 PM on May 9, 2005

Coloring is 'a good Jack makes a good Jill'.

What does that mean, literally?
posted by alumshubby at 3:03 PM on May 9, 2005

yeah, that thing is nuts. I was showing people around work that a couple months ago.

Crazy. Looks like it would be small enough to take off and land in a single lane of trafic.
posted by delmoi at 3:13 PM on May 9, 2005

I'm just nuts over it.
posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot at 4:07 PM on May 9, 2005

These are cool, they look like toys but you can actually kick ass in them.

Divine_Wino, the gun would have to make a cartoony noise when it fired though.

madamejujujive, I think that canopy was glad to see you in the pic you linked to!
posted by fenriq at 4:36 PM on May 9, 2005

A little slower and a little larger is the Hummelbird. There are lots of tiny ultralight aircraft for people wanting to get into the air on the cheap, but the Cri-Cri is undoubtedly one of the simplest designs.

Unfortunately, in Canada at least, a pilot needs a twin engine rating to fly one. Twin ratings don't come cheap, by the time you've got the rating and the Cri-Cri you could have bought a much more practical airplane...
posted by Snowflake at 9:44 AM on May 10, 2005

... you mean a much more practical SE airplane, no?
posted by bz at 3:04 PM on May 10, 2005

Snowflake: Since the Cri-Cri is not available as a kit, only the plans being sold, I guess it's going to be a minority interest anyway. A retirement project for airline pilots (all of them twin-rated, after all) in most cases, I presume.
posted by Skeptic at 3:34 PM on May 10, 2005