78 year old inventor ' s insect plane . Ready for first flight . An insect plane which is really a flying motor car is being prepared for her trials in a clearing in the New Forest . Its inventor is Mr T A Dring , aged 78 , of Poulner , Hampshire . For 25 years he has studied the flight of hovering insects , and is convinced that ordinary aeroplanes are built on the wrong principles . His machine has two sets of rotor vanes , motor driven , each projecting a stream of compressed air under the fuselage . If his theory is correct , expansion of the streams will lift the insect plane . Photo shows , the insect plane being prepared for her first flight . 30 April 1934