"It was at one time thought that the 'Flying Flea' would become the poor man's aeroplane and I feel sure that in a few years time it will be considered a most interesting exhibit." Harry Dolman, in a letter to the Science Museum, 1938.

The 1920s and 1930s in particular were a period of pioneering flights and huge public interest in aeroplanes. Many people wanted to build and fly their own private plane, but a simple, small aircraft design was needed. Lots of designs were proposed; the Bristol Aeroplane Company's chief designer Frank Barnwell came up with the diminutive, plywood-skinned Bristol Babe in late 1919, but it never entered production. The most successful of numerous home-made aircraft designs, however, was the 'Flying Flea' (Pou du Ciel) designed by Frenchman Henri Mignet. Mignet was a furniture designer who became interested in aircraft before World War 1. In 1934 he published a set of plans for an aircraft that could be made at home. Over 300 people around the world built and flew these, but concerns about their safety after several crashed fatally meant that they were banned in the UK in 1937.

Harry Dolman was a Bristol engineer who in 1935 became one of the first people to build a 'Flying Flea' in England. He called his aircraft, 'Blue Finch'.