Antoine Magnan (13 June 1881 – 5 March 1938) was a French

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

who studied the flight of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

and

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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 Insects are the only group of invertebrates that have evolved wings and flight. Insects first flew in the Carboniferous, some 350 to 400 million years ago, making them the first animals to evolve flight. Wings may have evolved from appendag ...

was impossible.

Life and work

Magnan was born in the central 7th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 13 June 1881. 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 Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

(from 1929 to 1938), and the director of the experimental morphology laboratory and the aviation laboratory at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

in Paris. He was responsible to the ministries of Education, Agriculture and the Interior.

Insect flight

The following passage appears in the introduction to ''Le Vol des Insectes'': This translates to: Magnan refers to his assistant, the mathematician and engineer

André Sainte-Laguë André Sainte-Laguë (, 20 April 1882 – 18 January 1950) was a French mathematician who was a pioneer in the area of graph theory. His research on seat allocation methods (published in 1910) led to one being named after him, the Sainte-Laguë ...

as the source of the calculations mentioned.

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnan, Antoine 1881 births 1938 deaths French entomologists French aerospace engineers 20th-century French zoologists