Fliegende Pfannkuchen (flying pancakes)...fact or fiction?

[Bodmas]

I'm trawling, at the moment, for information on the "Pfanncuchen Fliegende" ("Flying Pancake"). I'm not sure whether it is a "real" (Messerschmitt) project or the result of some "Nazi Flying Saucer" fantasism.
I believe that it was a project which resulted in a prototype that flew - once or twice - in 1942; and never flew again.[PS. it looked like Northrop's V-173 "Flying Flapjack"].
I have tried to look it up on the Web - but consistently find a lot of recipes for "light and Airy Pancakes" - which i can cook already...or, alternatively, wierd UFO/Conspiracy buff stuff.. I'm NOT a UFO buff: i'm just interested in unconventional wing layouts, like the Circular wing layout patented by Jack Northrop [possibly through NACA] in 1932; or the B&V asymmetrical wing planforms, and the Handley-Page designs [eg. for the SST] of the 50'sto70's.

[Addtional info: i think it was an underpowered failure due to being powered by an Argus 401 engine, which it wasn't designed to be; but, like the V-173 displayed excellent STOL capabilities.
I'm not entirely sure, though; i'm relying entirely on memory from quite a LOT of years ago]

Is this a "real" plane?

 

[Chunks]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

This mabbe?

http://www.luft46.com/misc/sackas6.html

 

[Michel Van]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

thats Sack AS-6.
Nickname is "Der Fliegende Pfannkuchen" (english: the flying pancake)

the rest of German WW2 circular-winged aircraft were still Plans or models
like the Focke-Wulf VTOL Project http://www.luft46.com/fw/fwvtol.html

 

[Justo Miranda]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

Additional info here

 

[Bodmas]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

Thanks a lot everybody - this was more than i could hope for

Particularly impressed by the Fw VTOL Project which i'd never heard about before
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Thank goodness nobody took me for a UFO Nut
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Any clues on dimensions, performance and such, anybody?

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

The "bierdeckel"!

 

[Cobra Kebab]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

Wasn't Sack a model aircraft designer that tried to realise his ideas in full-scale?

 

[Jemiba]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

In the FlugRevue article he was just described as a farmer, who was fascinated by
the idea of the disc wing. And about the models, it is told there the other way round:
He wanted to build a full sized aircraft from the start, but tested his ideas with models.

 

[Bodmas]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

Wasn't Sack a model aircraft designer that tried to realise his ideas in full-scale?

Thanks for the replies guys
Just when i thought this thread was dead, it begins to sound like the plot of "The Flight Of The Phoenix" ;D

 

[Skyraider3D]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

Hopefully I'll manage to finish my 3D model of this "thing" one day:

It's been dormant since September 2003 tho'... :-\

Also see: http://digitalaviationart.com/skyraider3d/as6v1_1wip.htm

 

[1946]

Arthur Sack AS-4

 

[1946]

Arthur Sack AS-5

 

[1946]

Arthur Sack AS-6 V-1

 

[1946]

Re: Pfanncuchen Fliegende...fact or fiction?

thats Sack AS-6.
Nickname is "Der Fliegende Pfannkuchen" (english: the flying pancake)

the rest of German WW2 circular-winged aircraft were still Plans or models
like the Focke-Wulf VTOL Project http://www.luft46.com/fw/fwvtol.html

The Focke-Wulf VTOL was at least studied and wind tunnel model was trialed.