HISTORY
World War I
Fokker
capitalized on having sold several
Fokker Spin monoplanes to the German
government and set up a factory in
Germany to supply the German army.
His first new design for the Germans
to be produced in any numbers was
the Fokker M.5, which was little
more than a copy of the
Morane-Saulnier G, built with steel
tube instead of wood for the
fuselage, and with minor alterations
to the outline of the rudder and
undercarriage and a new aerofoil
section.
When it was realized that it was
desirable to arm these scouts with a
machine gun firing through the
propeller, Fokker developed a
synchronization gear similar to that
patented by Franz Schneider.
Fitted with
a developed version of this gear,
the M.5 became the Fokker Eindecker
which, due to its revolutionary
armament, became one of the most
feared aircraft over the western
front, its introduction leading to a
period of German air superiority
known as the Fokker Scourge until
the balance was restored by aircraft
such as the Nieuport 11 and Airco
DH.2.
During
World War I, Fokker engineers were
working on the Fokker-Leimberger, an
externally-powered 12 barrel Gatling
gun in the 7.92x57mm round capable
of firing over 7200RPM.
Later
during the war, the German
government forced Fokker and Junkers
to cooperate more closely, which
resulted in the foundation of the
Junkers-Fokker Aktiengesellschaft
on 20 October 1917. As this
partnership proved to be
troublesome, it was eventually
dissolved again. By then, designer
Reinhold Platz had adapted some of
Junkers design concepts, what
resulted in a visual similarity
between the aircraft of those two
manufacturers during the next
decade.
Some
of the noteworthy types produced by
Fokker during the second half of the
war included the Fokker D.VI, Fokker
Dr.I
Dreidecker
(the mount of the Red Baron), Fokker
D.VII (the only aircraft ever
referred to directly in a treaty:
all DVII's were singled out for
handover to the allies in their
terms of the armistice agreement)
and the Fokker D.VIII.
Return to the Netherlands
In
1919, Fokker, owing large sums in
back taxes (including 14,250,000
marks of income-tax),
returned to the Netherlands and
founded a new company near Amsterdam
with the support of
Steenkolen Handels Vereniging,
now known as SHV Holdings. He chose
the name
Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek
(Dutch Aircraft Factory) to conceal
the Fokker brand because of his WWI
involvement. Despite the strict
disarmament conditions in the Treaty
of Versailles, Fokker did not return
home empty-handed. In 1919 he
arranged an export permit and
brought six entire trains of parts,
and 180 types of aircraft across the
Dutch-German border, among them 117
Fokker C.I's, D.VII's and D.VIII's.
This initial stock enabled him to
set up shop quickly.
After his
company's relocation, many Fokker
C.I and C.IV military air-planes
were delivered to Russia, Romania
and the still clandestine German
air-force. Success came on the
commercial market too, with the
development of the Fokker F.VII, a
high-winged aircraft capable of
taking on various types of engines.
Fokker continued to design and build
military aircraft, delivering planes
to the Dutch air force. Foreign
military customers eventually
included Finland, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, Switzerland, Hungary, and
Italy. These countries bought
substantial numbers of the Fokker
C.V reconnaissance aircraft, which
became Fokker's main success in the
latter part of the 1920s and early
1930s.
1920s and 30s: Fokker's glory period
In the
1920s, Fokker entered its glory
years, becoming the world's largest
aircraft manufacturer by late 1920s.
Its 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 shared the
European market with the Junkers
all-metal aircraft but dominated the
American market until the arrival of
the Ford Trimotor which copied the
aerodynamic features of the Fokker
F.VII, and Junkers structural
concepts.
A serious
blow to Fokker's reputation came
after the TWA Flight 599 disaster in
Kansas, when it became known that
the crash was caused by a structural
failure caused by wood rot. Notre
Dame legendary football coach Knute
Rockne was among the fatalities,
prompting extensive media coverage
and technical investigation. As a
result all Fokkers were grounded in
the USA, along with many other types
that had copied Fokker's wings.
In 1923
Anthony Fokker moved to the United
States, where he established an
American branch of his company, the
Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, in
1927 being renamed Fokker Aircraft
Corporation of America. In 1930 this
company merged 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 was divested by GM in
1948). A year later, discontented at
being totally subordinate to GM
management, Fokker resigned. On 23
December 1939, Anthony Fokker died
in New York City.
World
War II
At the
outset of World War II, the few G.1s
and D.XXIs of the Dutch Air Force
were able to score a respectable
number of victories against the
Luftwaffe
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 the Junkers
Ju 52 transport. At the end of the
war, the factories were completely
stripped by the Germans and
destroyed by Allied bombing.
Post-World
War II rebuilding
Rebuilding
after the war proved difficult. The
market was flooded with cheap
surplus aeroplanes from the war. The
company cautiously started building
gliders and autobuses and converting
Dakota transport planes to civilian
versions. A few F25s were built.
Nevertheless, the S-11 trainer was a
success, being purchased by several
air forces. The S-14 Machtrainer
became one of the first jet
trainers, and although not an export
success, it served for over a decade
with the Royal Netherlands Air
Force.
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
Gloster Meteor twin jet fighter and
Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter. A
second production and maintenance
facility was established at
Woensdrecht.
In 1958 the
F-27 Friendship was introduced,
Fokker's most successful post-war
airliner. The Dutch government
contributed 27 million guilders to
its development. Powered by the
Rolls-Royce Dart, it became the
world's best selling turboprop
airliner, reaching almost 800 units
sold by 1986, including 206 under
license by Fairchild. There is also
a military version of the F-27, the
F-27 Troopship (U.S. Army C-31A
Troopship).
In 1962, the
F-27 was followed by the F-28
Fellowship. Until production stopped
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,
Fokker 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
Fighting Falcon consortium (EPAF,
European Participating Air Forces),
which was responsible for the
production of these fighters for the
Belgian, Danish, Dutch, and
Norwegian Air Forces. It consisted
of companies and government agencies
from these four countries and the
United States. F-16s were assembled
at Fokker and at SABCA in Belgium
with parts from the five countries
involved.
Aerospace
In
1967, Fokker started a modest space
division building parts for European
satellites. A major advance 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, IRAS,
successfully launched 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.
Subsequently, Fokker contributed to
many European satellite projects, as
well as to the Ariane rocket in its
various models. 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. On 1 January
2006, it was taken over by
EADS-Space Transportation.
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 two new aircraft
concurrently. The Fokker 50 was to
be a completely modernised version
of the F-27, the Fokker 100 a new
airliner based on the F-28. 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 million Guilders
but demanded Fokker look for a
"strategic partner", British
Aerospace and DASA being named most
likely candidates.
Initial
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 then.
In 1992,
after a long and arduous negotiation
process, Fokker signed an agreement
with DASA. This did not however
solve Fokker's problems, mostly
because DASA's parent company
Daimler-Benz also had to deal with
its own organisational problems.
Bankruptcy
On 22
January 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
aircraft. Special projects included
the development of an F50 Maritime
Patrol variant and an F100 Executive
Jet. For this project, Stork
received the 2005 "Aerospace
Industry Award" in the Air Transport
category from
Flight
International
magazine.
Other
divisions of the company that were
profitable, continued as separate
companies, like Fokker Space (later
Dutch Space) and Fokker Control
Systems.
In November
2009, Stork Aerospace changed its
name to Fokker Aerospace Group. As
of 2011, the Fokker Aerospace Group
changed its name to Fokker
Technologies. The five individual
business units within Fokker
Technologies all carry the Fokker
name:
- Fokker
Aerostructures
- Fokker
Landing Gear
- Fokker
Elmo
- Fokker
Aircraft Services
- Fokker
Services
The former
Fokker aircraft facilities at
Schiphol were redeveloped into the
Fokker Logistics Park. One of the
former Fokker tenants is Fokker
Services.
Meanwhile,
Rekkof Aircraft ("Fokker" backwards)
is attempting to restart production
of the Fokker XF70 and XF100,
supported by suppliers and airlines.
Source:
Wikipedia
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