Jet Powered Vought F5U-2 "Flying Pancake"

[John Frazer]

Re: Jet Powered "Flying Pancake"



Just to be clear, here, the S.J.Sikorsky whose name appears on that cutaway, is the illustrator and not the better known Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky nor one of his sons or daughter.

It was Sergei Sikorsky attributed in those Italian language sources, with the jet versions. Is it known for some certainty that it was not the Sergei who worked on the Vought/Zimmerman craft, but coincidentally someone else of that name?

It's a myth that the flappy outward turning props were necessary for either very-low speed STOL performance or for efficiency at cruise.

Those insisting that it is so or that it wouldn't have worked with jets, are unaware of the Arup, the Nemeth, the Eshelman, the Farman 1020, the Little Bird, the Facetmobile, all of which did very well with stall-proof super-STOL performance and were sleek and efficient compared to "normal" higher aspect-ratio planes (the Nemeth and the Farman both being faster than the "normal" planes they were derived from, the Arup, the Eshelman, the Facetmobile and others getting good speed with little power).

They are also unaware of the vortex-driven "Parachute lift" phenomena which the very-low aspect-ratio uses to be stall-proof and fly at super-slow speeds. You can't "counter" the vortices, you wouldn't want to if you could.
The very-low aspect-ratio type is not burdened with always carrying around the excessive drag of the vortices that produce the parachute lift.
The parachute lift effect and the attendant drag of the extreme wrap-around wing-tip vortices are elective and temporary, in order to fly slowly.