1929 Press Photo – Ted Jenks with “Meteorplane,” the Smallest Practical Airplane

Original 1929 international press photograph featuring American aviator Ted Jenks standing beside his miniature aircraft, the “Meteorplane.” This aircraft is identified in the original German-language press caption as “das kleinste praktisch verwendbare Flugzeug der Welt” — the smallest practically usable airplane in the world at the time.

According to the original typewritten caption on the verso:

• The Meteorplane measured only 12 feet long and 4.5 feet high

• It was powered by a 4-horsepower engine

• The photograph is dated 23 February 1929, with press stamps from Recibida (24 Feb. 1929) and Archivio, and was distributed by an international photo service

The image shows the biplane with registration number 2616, and markings that include "U.S." and “Meteorplane” painted directly on the fuselage. The pilot/engineer is posed beside the front-mounted propeller, which is attached to a visibly compact engine unit.

This photograph is historically significant as it documents one of the most extreme efforts in the interwar era to create a functional, ultra-compact airplane — a curiosity within both aviation engineering and aeronautical exhibition history. The aircraft’s scale and powerplant placed it among the most unusual examples of flight-worthy design experimentation of the 1920s.