Legacy Vought Retirees to Restore Vintage Aircraft on Loan from Smithsonian

The V-173 "Flying Pancake," a short-takeoff experimental airplane, made it "home" to Vought Aircraft Industries' headquarters, this weekend, to be restored by company retirees. Vought's Retiree Club is leading the effort to transport and restore the aircraft. Retirees anticipate it may take three to four years to rebuild the vintage aircraft.

The priceless artifact was built by the Chance Vought Aircraft division of the United Aircraft Corp. in the early 1940s and first tested in 1942. The V-173 is on loan from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. With its vertical tails and ailevators (combination ailerons/elevators) removed, the V-173 had been stored in a Smithsonian museum collections facility in Suitland, Md.

To transport the V-173 from Maryland to Texas through six states, Vought retirees designed and built a metal and plywood fixture to carry the plane, tilted at a 32-degree angle, on a flatbed truck.

"This is a historic moment in time for retirees of the Chance Vought era," said Hank Merbler, 83, who helped organize the Vought Retiree Club after a 42-year career with the company. "It's an opportunity of a lifetime to apply our craftsmanship to such an important, one-of-a-kind aircraft. This is our way of kicking off the centennial of flight celebration right here in Dallas."

The "Flying Pancake," "Flying Flapjack," "Flying Saucer" and "Zimmerman's Skimmer" were all names to describe the aircraft designed by Charles H. Zimmerman. He joined United's Chance Vought Aircraft division in 1937 as project engineer. By 1939, drafting, engineering design and aerodynamic studies were far enough along for Chance Vought to submit a proposal to the U.S. Navy for a full-scale prototype of the V-173. The U.S. Navy placed a contract for one V-173 in 1940.

The V-173 was test flown for the first time on Nov. 23, 1942, in Stratford, Conn., by Boone T. Guyton, a former Navy fighter pilot and Chance Vought's chief test pilot. During its test life, the V-173 accumulated 131 hours in several hundred flights. Guyton made the most flights (54) in the V-173. Other pilots included Richard Burroughs, Charles Lindbergh and a number of Navy pilots. The V-173 could fly as slowly as 15 mph, cruised during tests at about 75 mph and had a top speed of 138 mph. Since it was an experimental aircraft, it carried only 20 gallons of fuel for short test flights.

The V-173's lightweight airframe structure was made of wood with fabric covering. Two 80-horsepower engines turned two 16.5-foot, three-bladed propellers on the V-173. The aircraft had a wingspan of 23 feet, 4 inches. The stork-like fixed landing gear gave the airplane a 22-degree nose-high ground angle. The V-173 weighed about 3,050 pounds for most of its flights.

In 1944, the V-173 was folded into the XF5U-1 program, another Zimmerman-designed airplane that was built but never flown. The protracted development program and the advent of jet aircraft caused the cancellation of the project on March 17, 1947.

FMI: www.voughtaircraft.com