Fokker
 |
Fokker 100 of British Midland Airways |
For the physicist and musician, see Adriaan Fokker.Fokker was a
Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder,
Anthony Fokker.
The company was founded on
February 22 1912["He founded his own company, Fokker Aviatik GmbH, which was entered on the Berlin trade register on 22 February 1912" http://library.thinkquest.org/C002752/fokker.cgi?page=anthony] by Dutchman
Anthony Fokker (1890–1939), one of the world's early
aviation pioneers. At age 20, he had built his first plane, the
Spin (Spider), the first Dutch-built plane to fly in his home country. In 1912, he founded his first own company,
Fokker Aeroplanbau in
Berlin,
Germany, later moving to
Schwerin.
There, Fokker built planes for the German
army during
World War I, forced onto
Hugo Junkers as a partner by the German
government. He gained fame with his planes
Fokker E.III, which used a mechanism that let pilots use machine guns on their planes without shredding their propellers (using
interrupter gear),
Fokker D.VII, and the famous
Fokker Dr.I triplane used by
Manfred von Richthofen, the
Red Baron.
 |
Fokker 70 of KLM taxiing after landing |
In 1919, Fokker separated from
Junkers, returned to the Netherlands, and founded his own company. He did not return home empty-handed: Fokker managed to smuggle an entire train's worth of D.VII and C.I military planes and spare parts across the German-Dutch border. This initial stock enabled him to quickly set up shop.
After his company's relocation, its main success would lie with commercial, civilian airplanes rather than military ones, although Fokker would continue to design and build those, predominantly for the Dutch air force. A notable exception was the
Finnish air force, which was largely equipped with
C.V,
C.X and
D.XXI aircraft.
In the 1920s, Fokker's biggest success was the
F.VIIa/3m trimotor passenger aircraft, which dominated the
European market until the arrival of the all-metal
American and German aircraft in the mid-1930s.
In December 1939, Anthony Fokker died in the
United States, where the American branch of his company was very successful.
The Fokker factories in the Netherlands were completely destroyed during
World War II, and a new factory was built next to
Schiphol Airport near
Amsterdam, in 1951. There, a number of military planes were built under license, among which was
Lockheed's
F-104 Starfighter. A second production and maintenance facility was established at Woensdrecht.
Fokker was one of the main partners in the F-16 consortium. The consortium was responsible for production of
F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters for the air forces of
Belgium,
Denmark, the
Royal Netherlands Air Force and
Norway. It consisted of companies and government agencies from the four countries and USA. F-16s were assembled with parts from the five countries at Fokker and at
SABCA in Belgium.
In 1958, the
Fokker F-27 "Friendship" was introduced, which became the world's best selling
turboprop airliner (selling almost 800 from 1958 to 1986). The F-27 was followed by the
Fokker F-28 "Fellowship", the
Fokker F50, the
Fokker F70 and the
Fokker F100. Both an F-27 and later an F-28 served with the Dutch Royal Flight,
Prince Bernhard himself being a pilot.
In 1969, the Fokker company agreed to an alliance with
Bremen-based
Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (representing
ERNO) under control of a transnational holding company. They collaborated on an unsuccessful regional
jetliner, the VFW-614. The
European Space Agency ESA in June 1974 named a consortium headed by ERNO-
VFW-Fokker GmbH to build pressurized modules for
Spacelab.
In 1996 the Fokker company was declared bankrupt, but some parts of the company survived. The space division became an independent company known as Dutch Space. This company was later on purchased by
EADS (in 2005).
Those parts of the company that manufactured parts of planes and carried out maintenance and repair work were taken over by
Stork N.V.; it is now known as Stork Aerospace Group. Stork Fokker exists to sustain remarketing of the company's existing aircraft.
Meanwhile,
Rekkof Aircraft ("Fokker" backwards) is attempting to restart production of the Fokker 70 NT, supported by suppliers and airlines.
* The introduction of the
Fokker E.I into the German air force in 1915 leads to the first
Fokker Scourge*
Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", flew a
Fokker Dr.I triplane (1917–1918)
* The introduction of the
Fokker D.VII into the German air force in 1918 leads to a second
Fokker Scourge*
Richard E. Byrd completed his trans-Atlantic flight from
New York City to
Paris in a
Fokker F.VII in 1927.
*
Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (from the US to the small
Welsh town of
Burry Port) did so in 1928 in a Fokker F.VII
* The same year,
Charles Kingsford-Smith completed the first trans-Pacific flight in another F.VII
* The
Fokker S-14 "Machtrainer" is the first jet fighter training aircraft in the world specifically designed and built to that end (1951)
Germany
*
Fokker D.VII*
Fokker D.VIII*
Fokker Dr.I*
Fokker E.III*
Fokker E.VThe Netherlands
*
Fokker C.V*
Fokker C.X *
Fokker D.XXI*
Fokker F.VII*
Fokker F24*
Fokker F25 "Promotor"
*
Fokker F26 "Phantom"
*
Fokker F27 "Friendship"
*
Fokker F28 "Fellowship"
*
Fokker F29*
Fokker 50*
Fokker 60 "Utility"
*
Fokker 70*
Fokker 100*
Fokker 130*
Fokker G.1*
Fokker S.11*
Fokker S.13*
Fokker S.14* Fokker T-2
United States
*
Fokker A-7*
Fokker B-8*
Fokker, a living history
