Local pilot and inventor Marvin Joy stands next to his experimental wingless plane that he called the “pumpkin seed.” The plane was flown twice at Pearson Field, in perhaps the first test of a lifting ...

The “Flying Flapjack” or Vought XF5U program was a U.S. Navy experimental aircraft that had some odd design features. The plane was designed by Charles H. Zimmerman just prior to World War II.

Ervin Elzie Joy, 28, of Vancouver, Wash., operates a railroad drawbridge. In his spare time he is an Unlicensed air pilot and builds planes. After five years of patient tinkering, Inventor Joy ...