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Revision as of 22:58, 3 January 2003 by 195.149.37.62 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer.
History
The company was founded on July 21, 1919 by Dutchman Anthony Fokker, 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. He gained fame with his planes the Fokker Dr.I (triplane) and the Fokker D.VII, with a mechanism that let pilots use machine guns on their planes without shooting their propellers.
In 1919, Fokker returned to the Netherlands and founded a new company. From then on, his main focus would be on commercial, civilian airplanes rather than military ones, though he would build those until World War II.
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 near Schiphol, the Dutch national airport, in 1951. There, a number of military planes were built under license, among which was Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter.
In 1958, the Fokker F27 Friendship was introduced, which became the world's best selling turboprop airliner (selling almost 800 from 1958 to 1986).
The F27 was followed by the Fokker F28 Fellowship, the Fokker F50, the Fokker F70 and the Fokker F100.
In 1996, part of the Fokker companies was declared bankrupt, with the remaining parts being taken over by Stork N.V.; it is now known as Stork Aerospace Group.