Pancaked

[DebbieLou]

Can anyone tell me what "pancaked" meant on landing? I thought it might have been landing without the undercarriage down but it crops up very frequently in the squadron records and may just refer to landing.....any ideas????

[Colin Rowledge]

My understanding of the term is the same as yours - but --------- we'll see what the 'experts have to say!!

[Neil Wilson]

When a aircraft crashed, with it being level, i.e. not nose/tail first.

[Peter Goodey]

The Oxford English Dictionary is available online thanks to our local library services

pancake, v.

intr. Aeronaut. Of an aircraft: to descend vertically in a level position (e.g. as a result of a stall); spec. to make a pancake landing. Of a pilot: to cause an aircraft to descend or land in this way.

[Coromandel]

A 1918 poster provides this definition:

'Pancaking consists of stalling the machine just above the surface of the ground and dropping the remaining 3 or 4 feet with as little forward speed as possible. A pancake landing is made on rough ground, standing corn, water etc. where an ordinary landing would result in a somersault. The illustration is intended as a warning against pancaking from too great a height or "landing above the ground". The opposite error of "landing below the ground" is of less frequent occurrence, though it may be disastrous in its results.'

The text, with accompanying illustration (depicting the consequence of the pilot misjudging where the ground is), can be found here:

http://www.
warmuseum.ca/CWM/EXHIBITIONS/GUERRE/photos/2800/19700043-008.jpg