Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:13, 28 March 2007

Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919. During its most successful period in the 1920s and 1930s, it dominated the civil aviation market. Fokker went into bankruptcy in 1996.

History

The company was founded on February 22 1912 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. Taking advantage of better opportunities in Germany, he moved to Berlin where, in 1912, he founded his first own company, Fokker Aeroplanbau, later moving to Schwerin.

World War I

The German government forced Fokker and Hugo Junkers to work together. This collaboration resulted in some famous early Fokker planes such as the Fokker E.III, Fokker Dr.I, and Fokker D.VII. These were all built for the German army to be used during World War I. Fokker gained further infamy with his synchronization gear invention that allowed the machine gun to be fired through the propeller, resulting in an air-superiorty briefly known as the Fokker Scourge. The famous Fokker Dr.I triplane was used by Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, who achieved an unequaled 80 air combat victories.

Yet some of Fokker's early monoplanes were insufficiently tested and had a tendency to warp and come apart under hard maneuvering. Fokker had managed to cure these problems by the time the Dreidekker entered service.

Return to the Netherlands

In 1919, Fokker separated from Junkers, returned to the Netherlands, and founded his own company near Amsterdam with the support of Steenkolen Handels Vereniging (now known as SHV Holdings). It was called Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek (Dutch Aircraft Factory), carefully concealing the Fokker name because of his WWI involvement. Despite the strict disarmament conditions in the Treaty of Versailles, Fokker did not return home empty-handed: he 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 entered its glory years, becoming the world's largest aircraft manufacturer by late 1920s. Their greatest success was the F.VIIa/3m trimotor passenger aircraft, which was used by 54 airline companies worldwide and captured 40 percent of the American market in 1936. It dominated the European market until the arrival of the all-metal American and German aircraft in the mid-1930s. A serious blow to Fokker's reputation came after the TWA Flight 599 disaster, after which all Fokkers were grounded in the USA.

In 1923 Anthony Fokker moved to the United States, where he established an American branch of his company, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, renamed in 1927 to Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. In 1930 this company fusioned with General Motors Corporation and the company's new name would be General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (which in turn merged with North American Aviation and divested by GM in 1948). But a year later, Anthony Fokker, discontent being totally subordinate to GM management, resigns. On December 23, 1939, Anthony Fokker died in New York City.

World War II

At the outset of World War II, the few Fokker G.1s and Fokker D.XXIs of the Dutch Air Force were able to score a respectable number of victories against German warplanes but many were destroyed on the ground before they could be used.

The Fokker factories were confiscated by the Germans and were used to build Bücker Bü 181 Bestmann trainers and parts for Junkers Ju 52. At the end of the war, the factories were completely stripped by the Germans and destroyed by Allied bombings.

Post-war rebuilt

Rebuilding after the war proved difficult. The market was flooded with cheap surplus airplanes from the war. They cautiously started building gliders and autobuses and converting Dakota transport planes to civilian versions. A few Fokker F25 were built, nevertheless, the Fokker S-11 trainer was a success, purchased by several air forces.

A new factory was built next to Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam in 1951. A number of military planes were built there under license, among them the Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter. A second production and maintenance facility was established at Woensdrecht.

In 1958 the Fokker F-27 "Friendship" was introduced, Fokker's most successful airliner. The Dutch government contributed 27 milion guilders to its development. It became the world's best selling turboprop airliner, selling almost 800 units from 1958 to 1986, including 206 of them built under license by Fairchild. A military version, the F-27 Troopship, is still being used by the Dutch army.

In 1962, the F-27 was followed by the Fokker F-28 "Fellowship". Until the production stop in 1987, a total of 241 were built in various versions. 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 under control of a transnational holding company. They collaborated on an unsuccessful regional jetliner, the VFW-614, of which only 19 were sold. This collaboration ended in early 1980.

Fokker was one of the main partners in the F-16 consortium. The consortium was responsible for the 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.

Space

In 1967, Fokker started a modest space division building parts for European satellites. A major advancement came in 1968 when Fokker developed the first Dutch satellite (the ANS) together with Philips and Dutch universities. This was followed by a second major satellite project, the IRAS, concluded by a successful launch in 1983. The European Space Agency (ESA) in June 1974 named a consortium headed by ERNO-VFW-Fokker GmbH to build pressurized modules for Spacelab.

Since then, Fokker contributed to many European satellite projects, as well as to the Ariane rocket in its various variants. Together with a Russian contractor, they developed the huge parachute system for the Ariane 5 rocket boosters which would allow the boosters to return to Earth safely and be reused.

The space division became more and more independent until just before Fokker's bankruptcy in 1996 it became a fully stand-alone corporation, known successively as Fokker Space and Systems, Fokker Space, and Dutch Space. But because of mismanagement and slow sales, it struggled until 2005 when it was absorbed by EADS.

Fokker 50, Fokker 100, and Fokker 70

After a brief and unsuccessful collaboration effort with McDonnell Douglas in 1981, Fokker began an ambitious project to develop 2 new aircraft concurrently. The Fokker 50 was to be a completely modernized version of the F-27; and the Fokker 100 was to be a new airliner based on the F-28 design. Yet, development costs were allowed to spiral out of control, almost forcing Fokker out of business in 1987. The Dutch government bailed them out with 212 milion guilders but demanded that Fokker looks for a "strategic partner", British Aerospace and DASA as the most likely candidates.

Initially sales of the Fokker 100 were good, leading Fokker to begin development of the Fokker 70, a smaller version of the F100, in 1991. But sales of the F70 were below expectations and the F100 had strong competition from Boeing and Airbus by now.

In 1992, after a long and arduous negotiation process, Fokker signed an agreement with DASA. But this did not solve Fokker's problems, mostly because DASA's parent company Daimler-Benz also had to deal with its own organizational problems.

Bankruptcy

On January 22, 1996, the Board of Directors of Daimler-Benz decided to focus on its core automobile business and cut ties with Fokker. The next day an Amsterdam court extended temporary creditor protection. On March 15 the Fokker company was declared bankrupt.

Those divisions of the company that manufactured parts 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: they refurbish and resell F50s and F100s, and converted a few F50s to transport planes. Special projects included the development of a F50 Maritime Patrol version and a F100 Executive Jet. For this project Stork received the 2005 "Aerospace Industry Award" in the "Air Transport" category from Flight International magazine.

Meanwhile, Rekkof Aircraft ("Fokker" backwards) is attempting to restart production of the Fokker 70 NT, supported by suppliers and airlines.

Famous Fokkers

• 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 as a passenger (from Newfoundland to the small Welsh town of Burry Port) did so in 1928 in a Fokker F.VII piloted by Wilmer L. Stultz.
• 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)

Fokker airplanes

1912-1918

• Fokker Spin
• Fokker M.1 - M.4 Spin (military version)
• Fokker W.1 - W.2
• Fokker A.III (M.5K)
• Fokker A.II (M.5L)
• Fokker M.6
• Fokker B.I (M.7 en M.10E)
• Fokker W.3
• Fokker A.I (M.8)
• Fokker M.9
• Fokker B.II (M.10Z)
• Fokker E.I (M.5K/MG)
• Fokker E.II (M.14)
• Fokker E.III (M.14v)
• Fokker E.IV (M.15)
• Fokker M.16E and M.16Z
• Fokker B.II (M.17Z)
• Fokker B.III (M.18Z)
• Fokker D.I (M.18E)
• Fokker D.II (M.17E)
• Fokker D.III (M.19)
• Fokker D.IV (M.21)
• Fokker D.V (M.22)
• Fokker V.1 - V.4
• Fokker F.I (V.5)
• Fokker Dr.I
• Fokker V.6 - V.9
• Fokker D.VI (V.13)
• Fokker D.VII (V.11/2)
• Fokker V.17 - V.25
• Fokker E.V/D.VIII (V.26)
• Fokker V.27 - V.37
• Fokker C.I (V.38)

1919-1940

• Fokker V.39 - Fokker V.42
• Fokker C.II
• Fokker F.6
• Fokker F.II
• Fokker F.III
• Fokker F.IV
• Fokker T.II
• Fokker S.I
• Fokker D.IX
• Fokker D.X
• Fokker S.II
• Fokker B.I
• Fokker C.IV
• Fokker F.V
• Fokker S.III
• Fokker D.XI
• Fokker T.III
• Fokker B.II
• Fokker F.VII
• Fokker C.V
• Fokker D.XII
• Fokker D.XIII
• Fokker S.IV
• Fokker D.XIV
• Fokker B.III
• Fokker F.VIII
• Fokker T.IV - T.IVa
• Fokker C.VIIW
• Fokker F.XI "Universal"
• Fokker F.XIV
• Fokker D.XVI
• Fokker F.IX
• Fokker C.VIII
• Fokker C.IX
• Fokker F.XII
• Fokker D.XVII
• Fokker F.XVIII
• Fokker F.XX
• Fokker F.XXXVI
• Fokker C.X
• Fokker F.XXII
• Fokker C.XIW
• Fokker D.XXI
• Fokker G.I
• Fokker T.V
• Fokker S.IX
• Fokker C.CIVW
• Fokker T.VIIIW
• Fokker D.XXIII
• Fokker T.IX

American designs

• Fokker A-7
• Fokker B-8

1945-1996

• Fokker F24
• Fokker F25 "Promotor"
• Fokker S-11 "Instructor"
• Fokker S-12 "Instructor"
• Fokker S-13 "Universal Trainer"
• Fokker S-14 "Machtrainer"
• Fokker F26 "Phantom"
• Fokker F27 "Friendship"
• Fokker F28 "Fellowship"
• Fokker 50
• Fokker 60 "Utility"
• Fokker 70
• Fokker 100
• Fokker 130 (concept stage only)

References

1. "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

External links

• Stork Aerospace official website
• Rekkof official website
• Fokker, a living history
• FokkerPilot.net - Your resource on the net!
• Fokker aircraft website

• Aircraft manufacturers of the Netherlands
• Defunct aircraft manufacturers
• Defunct companies of the Netherlands
• Fokker