The U.S. Navy's Unconventional 'Flying Pancake' Fighter

Vought V-173 prototype's 427 square feet of wing area gave it the capability of taking off nearly vertically with typical wind over a ship’s deck.

Jason McDowell

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 11:21 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Kimberly Johnson

With the 22-degree deck angle on the Vought V-173, the pilot was forced to look forward, past his feet, through windows on the underside of the nose. [Courtesy: U.S. Navy]

Key Takeaways:

The Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake," designed by Charles Zimmerman in the late 1930s, was an unconventional aircraft developed for the U.S. Navy to provide short takeoff/landing (STOL) fighter capabilities from various ships.
Its unique saucer-like, nearly all-wing design, powered by two small buried engines and enormous propellers, generated immense lift, enabling a remarkable landing speed of just 22 mph and near-vertical takeoffs.
Despite initial skepticism and operational quirks, the V-173 successfully validated its radical concept through extensive flight testing, leading to a more powerful successor (XF5U) that never fully flew, and the original V-173 was later restored for display.

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If one were to claim that their new aircraft design utilized two 80 hp Piper Cub engines that turned two 16.5-foot propellers, that individual’s mental state might be called into question. If that individual were to go on to claim that their new aircraft design would resemble a flying saucer and could land at 22 mph, we might suggest that they sketch their design out on paper so they could show it to a psychiatrist and receive powerful prescription medication to help them control their delusions.

Such a design did emerge in the late 1930s, but the designer, Charles Zimmerman, was not insane. On the contrary, his unconventional vision, which became the Vought V-173 and was nicknamed the “Flying Pancake,” did, in fact, come to fruition. Not only did it fly, but it demonstrated remarkable performance.