Vought V-173 Flying Pancake

The Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" designed by Charles H. Zimmerman was an American experimental test aircraft built as part of the Vought XF5U "Flying Flapjack" World War II United States Navy fighter aircraft program.

Both aircraft featured an unorthodox "all-wing" design consisting of a flat, somewhat disk-shaped body (hence its name) serving as the lifting surface. Two piston engines buried in the body drove propellers located on the leading edge at the wingtips.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Vought
• V-173
• Flying
• Pancake
• Flapjack
• Charles
• H.
• Zimmerman
• World
• War
• II
• United
• States
• Navy
• fighter
• experimental
• aircraft
• XF5U

[TrickyGap]

Selected as the Lubbock Composite Squadron's (Civil Air Patrol) cadet video of the week. Thanks for posting this.

[jaglavaksoldier]

Good luck, cadets!!!

[gzupe567]

I worked for Vought they are rebuilding this plane for the Smithsonian.

[Phenixtri]

Its my life's dream to rebuild this thing :D both the prototype & the planned military version.

[DevilMaster]

@jerome96114 Because the existence of turbojets made them obsolete.

Although, I wonder how a turboprop version of this would perform...

[jerome96114]

Why didn't they go in series with it ?

(Or did they?)

[francois4640]

@francois4640

"La crêpe volante" indeed

[francois4640]

I don't know if this has already been said but this plane (prototype actually) is located now in Poitiers (France) in the Futuroscope resort. I got to discover it by chance in last September during a trip over there. Its nickname in french is "La crêpe dorée"

[granskare]

cool

[blkbrdsr71]

Wish someone would make an 4ch RC of this plane.

[CookiesAndGuns95]

"We have a 12 million man army and 3,000 nukes! Might as well give up!"

"Not so fast! We have a flying pancake!"

[drongoesgalore]

yo