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.

The overall concept was as unique as the design.

The U.S. Navy was intrigued by the idea of a fighter that could operate from ships other than massive aircraft carriers. This capability would enable the Navy to deploy fighters from nearly anywhere and in huge numbers. Motivated to explore this consent, the Navy solicited design proposals.

As it happened, Zimmerman had already been toying with a unique design that could provide the perfect blend of capabilities. When the request came in, he was working as a senior designer at Vought. Vought tasked him with designing and building a quarter-scale prototype of his concept to evaluate as the basis for the Navy’s request.

Enabling an aircraft to take off and land at such short distances requires a lot of lift. Fortunately, Zimmerman’s design was nearly all wing.

The V-173 prototype would ultimately weigh just over 3,000 pounds fully loaded, with a massive 427 square feet of wing area. By comparison, a 3,100-pound Cessna 182T has only 174 square feet of wing area. While the 182’s wing loading is approximately 14 pounds per square foot, the V-173’s was just over 5. The V-173 was kite-like by comparison. 

With such ample lift, only modest power would be required. Zimmerman chose two small and light 4-cylinder Continental A80 piston engines. Their small size enabled them to be buried within the saucer-like fuselage.

Zimmerman wasn’t finished. To further reduce takeoff and landing distances, two enormous propellers bathed the entire airframe in propwash, generating lift even at a standstill. The result? A landing speed of only 22 mph and the capability of taking off nearly vertically with typical wind over a ship’s deck.

One interesting challenge to operating such a unique aircraft was the forward visibility on the ground—or the lack thereof.

Compared to a typical taildragger’s resting deck angle of around 5 degrees, the V-173 sat at an extreme 22 degrees. This would eliminate all forward vision if not for the addition of windows on the underside of the nose by the pilot’s feet. When on the ground, the pilot simply looked downward, past his feet, and could see the path ahead.

The V-173 would go on to amass some 131 hours of flight time. A variety of pilots flew it, including Charles Lindbergh. At one point, a fuel issue resulted in a forced landing on a beach. While the airplane flipped over onto its back, neither the airplane nor test pilot were significantly harmed.

With a substantial amount of testing completed, Vought built the marginally larger and massively more powerful XF5U.

While the wingspan was only approximately 30 percent greater than the V-173, it was fitted with two 1,350 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines, as found on the 44-passenger Douglas DC-4. The subsequent addition of F4U Corsair propellers and an ejection seat resulted in a max takeoff weight of nearly 19,000 pounds.

The XF5U would never truly take flight, however—it only ever conducted taxi tests and short hops in ground effect.

Both examples would ultimately be scrapped, and the V-173 placed into long-term storage. Charles Zimmerman went on to become a division chief for Project Mercury at NASA and was later named director of aeronautics, where he completed his 38 years of service with NASA.

Fortunately, the diminutive V-173 would not only survive but would later be resurrected.

In 2003, the Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation began a nearly 10-year-long restoration of the aircraft, stripping it down to its wooden airframe and replacing the fabric entirely. Today, the resplendent V-173 stands proudly on display at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas.

The post The U.S. Navy’s Unconventional ‘Flying Pancake’ Fighter appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Though close to 34,000 Messerschmitt Me-109s were produced, only a handful are currently flying. The Military Aviation Museum’s Me-109G-4 is one of the very few flying to be powered by its original Daimler Benz DB 605 inverted V-12 engine.

Ironically, postwar Spanish-built Buchon versions of the German fighter were powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin that was installed on British fighters during WWII.

The Virginia museum features a stable of three dozen WWII vintage aircraft, including Me-109 stablemate Focke Wulf Fw-190 and its adversaries, the P-51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire, and Hawker Hurricane.

The Me-109 was restored from the remains of WkNr (Production Number) 19257 flown by Feldwebel Viktor Peterman on a mission over the Eastern Front. Russian fighters damaged his cooling system. He force-landed and walked four days to get back to his base. From the remains, Meier Motors in Eschbach, Germany, performed the restoration.

The Me-109 is just now emerging from more than a year of heavy maintenance. It made its first post-maintenance flight on September 9. Last week, Military Aviation Museum chief pilot Mike Spalding flew the Messerschmitt again and declared it ready for this weekend’s show.

WATCH: Flying the Bf-109

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post Rare German Fighter Is Back in the Sky appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The National Hurricane Center warned that Helene would likely bring heavy rainfall and “devastating hurricane-force winds” inland to north Florida and Georgia on Friday.

A spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine Tyndall’s 95th Fighter Squadron relocated its F-35s to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada ahead of the storm warnings, noting that they will remain safe there until conditions improve at Tyndall. Meanwhile, officials at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia also evacuated its HH-60 combat rescue helicopters and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets to ensure their safety.

According to reports, Tyndall is still undergoing reconstruction due to damage from Hurricane Michael in 2018, which tore apart hangars and damaged several F-22 Raptors, causing some $5 billion in damage. Fortunately, Tyndall officials do not anticipate major disruptions from Helene.

Tyndall remains closed to non-mission-essential staff.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post Tyndall Air Force Base Evacuates Aircraft Ahead of Storm appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The aircraft took off from Ada Regional Airport (KADH) in Oklahoma and flew over Lake Atoka during the 60-minute flight. According to GAMI, the warbird’s 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine is the most powerful to fly on the G100UL fuel.

• READ MORE: GAMI Responds to Cirrus G100UL Service Advisory

“This big-bore radial engine operating at up to 48-inch MP demonstrates the excellent high-octane performance of the G100UL high octane unleaded avgas,” GAMI said in a statement. “The ability to successfully operate this engine as such on an unleaded fuel supports the continued operation of these and many other warbirds well into the future.”

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post GAMI’s G100UL Unleaded Fuel Successfully Powers Historic WWII Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Don’t worry. There will definitely be airplanes for Ukraine,” Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, Denmark’s ambassador to Ukraine, told Ukrainian news outlet Mi-Ukraina on Sunday, according to Newsweek.

The confirmation comes days after the Nordic country marked the sale of two dozen of its F-16s to Argentina. Last month, Denmark announced it planned to divest its F-16 fleet as it modernizes with F-35s.

“In Denmark, we are about to change the generation of our fleet of combat aircraft with new F-35 aircraft,” Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish minister of defense, said April 16. “Therefore, I am very pleased that the Danish F-16 aircraft, which have served us well over the years and have been thoroughly maintained and technologically updated, are now being used in the Argentine Air Force. With the deal, we are strengthening the Danish-Argentinian defense cooperation, at the same time as Argentina becomes part of the global F-16 family.”

In late March, Poulsen outlined that Denmark would be donating 19 F-16s to Ukraine, where officials have long sought access to the fighter jet in order to modernize its air force and improve its defense ability following Russia’s invasion in 2022.

The first F-16 aircraft are expected to be delivered to Ukraine this summer.

“It is difficult to set a fixed timetable for the donation of F-16 fighter jets, because there are several conditions that must be met in order for Ukraine to use the donated aircraft,” Poulsen said in late February. 

• READ MORE: Norway to Send F-16s to Denmark for Ukrainian Pilot Training

Last week, the Netherlands delivered three F-16s to the European F-16 Training Center (EFTC) in Romania for Ukrainian pilot training, Reuters reported.

Russia President Vladimir Putin contends that the F-16 “would not change the situation in Ukraine” and has vowed that the aircraft will be shot down by Russian military forces.

The post Official: Denmark to Send F-16s to Ukraine appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I can honestly say our stories captured millions of reads from pilots and aviation enthusiasts over the last 12 months, both for our digital-only news and enterprise reporting, as well as the print features we brought online to share with the world.

Being the stickler for detail I am, I waited til the last second ticked over on the year before diving in to see what scored highest—and here are my select 7 of those stories and why I found them compelling.

Boeing Bird of Prey Shrouded in Secrecy Still

Jason McDowell, a mild-mannered private pilot from the Midwest, consistently entertains and intrigues with both his New Owner online column, Air Compare features in print, and this series on History’s Unique Aircraft. A jet named after a Klingon spacecraft from Star Trek and given the designation “YF-118G”, Boeing’s Bird of Prey incorporated dramatic design inside and out. Why is it still a mystery? It has less to do with Boeing—and more so with the giant aerospace OEM it acquired in the 90s, McDonnell-Douglas. 

Downed WWII Lancaster Bomber Raised from Sea Floor

Our readers love their warbirds—and they clearly love a good rescue story. Who doesn’t? Especially when the survivor in question is a rare Avro Lancaster Ed603—the heavy bomber the Brits used to defend their shores and stop Hitler in World War II. Eight decades later, the airplane’s remains and those of several crewmembers have been recovered in a poignant story by Kimberly Johnson that clearly struck a chord with readers.

Why Jet It Failed

From our unique position as the world’s largest aviation media organization—a title we took in 2023 with several key acquisitions—we have an insider’s look at much of industry. And sometimes that goes a step further, because we are deeply involved in flying and operating aircraft ourselves. When fractional operator Jet It collapsed in May, FLYING Media Group owner Craig Fuller brought his behind the scenes look at the cause of the collapse to FLYING’s readers as one of the HondaJet share owners affected by the fractional’s failure.

Collings Foundation Grounds Air Tour for WWII Aircraft

More living history made our headlines—with repercussions following the horrific accident taking B-17 Flying Fortress Nine-Oh-Nine on October 2, 2022. Technical editor Meg Godlewski went in depth when the Collings Foundation took the needed step to reduce its exposure to risk by halting its famous Wings of Freedom tours of WWII aircraft and other flying legends. Instead, it has adapted its mission to bring the aircraft to a wider range of school groups with more robust education and preservation.

NTSB Releases Fiery HondaJet Runway Excursion Details

Unfortunately, many of you seek FLYINGmag.com for its reporting on accidents—looking to learn beyond the reports of the National Transportation Safety Board and understand why they occurred. Our goal? To help you mitigate the causes of these occurrences in your own flying. While several high-profile events captured our readers’ attention—and continue to do so in Peter Garrison’s Aftermath analysis as well—runway excursions by business jets remain a stubborn accident profile that the industry seeks to reduce.

A Yak 18T’s Escape from Ukraine

An exclusive feature from our print edition also racked up significant views in just the few weeks since it debuted online—FLYING contributor Jay Selman revealed the inspiring story of a special Yak 18T and the complex maneuvering  to bring it out of Ukraine and into flying status in the U.S. Both restoration and rescue mission, this article drew a lot of attention—as do many of our aircraft features, including We Fly reports on new aircraft, and Restoration Nation features on bringing historic airplanes back to life.

SpaceX Starship Grounded Indefinitely by the FAA

And the top story—in terms of total time viewers spent reading it? Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship has clearly caught our imagination in its democratization of space. Jack Daleo’s reporting on the subject drew folks to our site (thank you) and kept them reading all year long. We’re fascinated by space—and the dawn of a new era of exploration is upon us that more regular people will be able to take part in. 

That’s just one reason why I’m excited to see what 2024 brings us, in terms of stories.

And for me? I vow to #flymorein24! See you in the skies.

The post My Top <i>FLYING</i> Stories for 2023 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The purchase contract includes new medium multirole aircraft for the Spanish Air and Space Force and the Spanish Navy configured as both maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and maritime surveillance aircraft (MSA). The 1.695 euro ($1.8 billion) deal also includes a full flight simulator, mission system simulator, and initial logistics support package, Airbus said.

• READ MORE: Airbus NH90 Sea Tiger Naval Helicopter Makes First Flight

The MPA aircraft will replace the country’s Lockheed P-3 Orion fleet, which it retired last year. The airplanes will be tasked with anti-submarine, anti-surface warfare. and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and will be capable of carrying torpedoes and other weapons systems.

“The aircraft will be fully designed and manufactured in Spain, fostering the national industrial defense footprint and sovereignty” said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. “In particular, the maritime patrol version is the most complex C295 mission configuration to date.”

• READ MORE: Airbus U.S. Space and Defense Adds New Line of Business in Drones

The MSA-configured aircraft are set to replace the country’s CN-235 VIGMA twin-engine military transporter for anti-smuggling and anti-drug trafficking operations, as well as search-and-rescue missions.

The post Spain Places Order for 16 Airbus C295 Patrol Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The aircraft was selected by South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) as the winner of the Large Transport Aircraft (LTA) II public tender for a new military transport airplane for ROKAF, Embraer said Monday.

• READ MORE: Agreement Expands Embraer Expands Foothold in Saudi Arabia

The agreement, which comes as South Korea continues to modernize its military fleet, makes the country the seventh to purchase the C-390 for military transport and the first to operate it in Asia. The medium-sized military transport aircraft is capable of carrying a payload of more than 26 tons and flying at 470 knots.

• READ MORE: South Korea’s Navy Takes Delivery of 3 Bell 505 Helicopters

In addition to providing an undisclosed number of aircraft configured for ROKAF specifications, Embraer will also provide services and support, including training, ground support equipment, and spare parts. The company said a significant amount of aircraft parts would be made by Korean partners, and there would be development of a local maintenance repair and overhaul provider.

• READ MORE: Czech Republic Sets Eyes on Embraer C-390 for Military Transport

“We welcome the [ROKAF] to the growing number of air forces operating the C-390 Millennium—the most modern military tactical transport aircraft,” said Bosco da Costa Jr., president and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security. “Day after day, the aircraft has proven its capability to complete a wide range of missions with great efficiency, serviceability, and speed.”

In 2019, the Brazilian Air Force began operating the C-390, which Embraer markets as an alternative to the C-130 Hercules. The Portuguese Air Force took delivery of its first KC-390 tanker this year. 

The post South Korea to Buy Embraer C-390 for Military Transport appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The maiden flight occurred at Airbus Helicopters’ production facility in Donauwörth, Germany. The aircraft will now enter a qualification phase that includes flight testing with newly installed systems before deliveries begin by the end of 2025.

The aircraft is the newest variant of the Airbus NH90 naval helicopter, which is already in use in six countries for search and rescue and military operations. The Sea Tiger variant designed for the German military is equipped with anti-submarine warfare technology including a dipping sonar, sonobuoys, and weapons, such as torpedoes and missiles for engaging targets above and below the surface. 

• READ MORE: Norway to Buy 6 MH-60R Helicopters

In 2020, Germany’s military, known as Bundeswehr, ordered 31 NH90 Sea Tigers for the German Navy to replace its aging fleet of Mk88A Sea Lynx. The military already operates 18 NH90 Sea Lion naval transport helicopter variants, Airbus said.

“Operating both the NH90 Sea Lion and the Sea Tiger will allow the Navy to further streamline its operations and maintenance,” said Stefan Thomé, managing director of Airbus Helicopters in Germany. “The NH90 Sea Lion, which is already in service with the Navy, has recently proven its capabilities during a first major rescue operation in the North Sea.”

The post Airbus NH90 Sea Tiger Naval Helicopter Makes First Flight appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Representatives of Embraer and Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI)—the country’s state-owned defense company—signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) establishing cooperation in the aerospace sector Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“This is the first step to advance cooperation in defense and security involving production chains between the two countries,” Bosco da Costa Junior, president and CEO of Embraer Defense and Security, said in a statement. “With this [MOU], Embraer advances further into a strategic market.”

• READ MORE: Czech Republic Sets Eyes on Embraer C-390 for Military Transport

The agreement sets the stage to expand operations for both companies in Saudi Arabia, “with a focus on promoting the capabilities of the C-390,” and supporting the country’s Ministry of Defense, Embraer said.

“SAMI and Embraer will work to establish comprehensive maintenance capability for the Embraer aircraft in the Kingdom. Additionally, both companies will explore a Regional MRO Hub and a final assembly line for the Embraer C-390, as well as a mission system integration in the Kingdom,” Embraer said. 

• READ MORE: Embraer C-390 Completes Flight Tests for Firefighting Missions

The MOU also establishes an aerospace sector training partnership between the two companies in Saudi Arabia, the company added.

The MOU is the latest in a string of international agreements aimed at localizing Saudi Arabia’s defense industry. In recent months, SAMI has entered into an maintenance agreement with France’s Safran Helicopter Engines, as well as with Turkey’s Baykar Tech for drone manufacturing.

• READ MORE: Saudi Arabia Selects King Airs for Weather Mission

“This growth in our business scope and capabilities highlights SAMI’s dedication to advancing and supporting the development of the aerospace ecosystem in the Kingdom,” SAMI CEO Walid Abukhaled said in a statement. “It is another important step in SAMI’s efforts in supporting the Saudi Vision 2030 to strengthen the Kingdom’s self-sufficiency in the defense sector and contribution to the localization of 50 percent of the defense spending In the Kingdom by 2030.”

The post Agreement Expands Embraer Foothold in Saudi Arabia appeared first on FLYING Magazine.