XF5U-1: The Flying Pancake

Some aircraft in military history look so strange it’s hard to believe they ever existed. Just think of this: a disc-shaped fuselage that looks somewhere between a pancake and a UFO, two enormous propellers, and landing gear so tall that the aircraft sits on the runway at nearly a 20-degree nose-up angle. And just to make things even more interesting, it was meant to operate from aircraft carriers. Sounds like a fever dream, right? Well, it isn’t. Meet the American experimental fighter XF5U-1!