Canard (aeronautics) flown, including the Ambrosini SS.4, Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender and Kyūshū J7W1 "Shinden". These were attempts at using the canard configuration to give advantages in areas such as performance, armament disposition or pilot view, but no production aircraft were completed. The Shinden was ordered into production "off the drawing board" but hostilities ceased before any other than prototypes had flown. Just after the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, what may have been the first canard designed and flown in the Soviet Union appeared as a test aircraft, the lightweight Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-8 "Utka" (Russian for "duck"). It was
Le Canard enchaîné the resignation of cabinet ministers. Some of the information published by the "Canard" clearly comes from very well-placed sources, who are likely to include ministerial aides. Charles de Gaulle was a frequent target, and was known to ask, "What does the bird have to say?" ("Que dit le volatile?") every Wednesday – the day "Canard" would roll off the presses. There are often verbatim and off-the-record quotes from major politicians, including the president and prime minister, usually aimed at another politician. The paper's international coverage has been pretty spotty, though it has improved. It relies mostly on leaks from French