After the Christmas holidays and starting with the New Year, we reach to number four of the weirdest aircrafts in history. And the one we have choosen for today is really a weirdo. It is the Vought V173 “Flying Pancake” designed by Charles H. Zimmerman, a notorious aeronautic engineer who worked on the concept of the disk shaped aircraft. This kind of configuration tried to avoid the adverse effects of the induced drag caused by a short wing aspect ratio with vortexes generated by the long propellers located in the tips. The original prototype was built of wood and fabric and was powered by two 80 HP engines spinning propellers that were taken from a F4U Corsair! Although later these were changed for others with a special design. In order to clear the ground on land, the aircraft had a standing angle distance of 22 degrees, what gave this aircraft almost VTOL capabilities.
The first flight of the V-173 was on 23 November of 1942 and had vibration problems due to the complex gearboxes that drove the propellers. During 1942 and 1943 190 the test flights that were performed showed the plane’s easy maneuverability and low speed qualities (even Charles Lindbergh flew it and assured this).
Unfortunately, like many other projects of this time, it was surpassed by the modern jet fighters. The last flight was in 1947.
A V-173 is still preserved in the Smithsonian.
This is a link to a Youtube video where different test phases are shown.
When we talked in previous posts about the specialists, I don’t think that any of you thought about the importance that these people have in the daily workout of a company. These men and women are a collective of which the direction board is very proud of, but they do not pay any attention to them. Although no one explicitly say it, the underlying message is that “these people have so much fun with what they do that they are sufficiently rewarded”.
