Vought XF5U: The Flying Pancake - Charles Zimmerman's Genius Design

Discover the fascinating story of the Vought XF5U, an experimental aircraft developed for the US Navy during World War II. This unique disc-shaped plane, nicknamed the "Flying Pancake," featured innovative design elements including a lifting fuselage, counter-rotating propellers, and advanced propulsion systems. Learn about its development, technical specifications, and the reasons behind its cancellation. Explore how this revolutionary aircraft pushed the boundaries of aviation technology and influenced future VTOL designs.
00:00 - Intro Retro Transport
00:05 - Vought XF5U History
02:57 - Outro Retro Transport
#RetroTransport #VoughtXF5U #FlyingPancake #ExperimentalAircraft #AviationHistory #WWII #USNavy #MilitaryAviation #AerospaceEngineering #VTOL #InnovativeDesign

[@rutabega2039]

Nice short video, but it misses the biggest engineering challenge of this design. The general reason that most airplane wings are wide and thin is that vortices develop on the tips; these vortices increase drag and cancel lift in their vicinity, so you want wingtips to be as small as possible. This would not have been a problem for the XF5U because the location of the propellers on the edges of the lifting body meant that the thrust they generated would blow these vortices away. The airplane would thus have had the lift of equivalent conventional wings while having far less drag due to the reduced frontal area, resulting in unparalleled speed for a prop-driven aircraft (the rate of roll and hence the maneuverability would have been outstanding as well).
The core problem was that for the airplane to fly and be under control, both props had to be producing thrust. If one propeller failed, nearly all of the lift on that one side would be eliminated and the plane would spin hopelessly out of control and crash. To prevent this, it was necessary to have a very complex (and heavy) gear and shaft arrangement such that both engines were driving both propellers at all times; if the engines had been individually linked to each prop, any engine failure would have meant an immediate crash that the pilot would have been very unlikely to be able to escape. With one working engine driving both propellers, the plane could have been landed or at least remained sufficiently under control for the pilot to bail out.
Could such a complex problem have been solved reliably in the 1940s? Perhaps, but it's worth noting that the V-22 Osprey faces essentially the same problem, and although that now seems to be a successful aircraft (perhaps), it took a very long time, a great deal of money, and a large number of deaths to get there.