Concept
Antoine Magnan (13 June 1881 – 5 March 1938) 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. Magnan was born in the central 7th arrondissement of Paris 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 at the Collège de France (from 1929 to 1938), 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. The following passage appears in the introduction to Le Vol des Insectes: 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. 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.