Interesting Fokker fact, Pre WW1.

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The Dutchman Anthony Fokker,

Built and flew a tandem-seat monoplane, which was offered to Britain but rejected :rolleyes: .

It was to be produced in several version's by the central Power's, the definitive one being the Fokker E.III ' Eindecker ' :cool: .

Although only 300 hundred of these aircraft were built, they shot down at least 1,000 Allied aircraft :eek: :eek: ..........(Doh Doh say's the man with his umbrella and suit, counting old blighty's bean's at the time :p )

Any comment's Please Lady's and Gent's, are most welcomed :D .

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You been reading the "Iron Men on Wooden Wings" book?

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19 years 8 months

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Here a few picture's of the Fokker's, and Tony and a few lad's

Got these from Rosebud's WW1 and Early Aviation Image Archive ;) .

http://members.shaw.ca/flyingaces/archive1.htm

Anthony Fokker, sure did build some damn nice aircraft in his time :) .

Enjoy " The Fokker Scourge " of 1915 :cool: .

Add more Fokker's if you can please lady's and gent's, or just chat Fokker's :)

(p.s. He even offered it to the French as well, only to be knocked back as well :rolleyes: )

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G' Day Armwaver Mate,
No about the book, I have seen it once, at a mate's place, and been told I can be on the list to see and read it someday sooonish.

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How do "Stormer"...
Not a bad book. One of several I have on the go at the moment...
Contains some intersting bits and bobs in it including the Anthony Fokker saga you intimated.
I quite agree a talented man. According to the book he went by the addage of "If it looks right..." How much creedence you can put to it is another matter but makes for an interesting read.

Hope you are keeping as well as can be

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Was the Fokker DR.1 (like the Red Baron's plane) also designed by Anthony Fokker? :confused:

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I'm not a WW1 expert, but I was told that Anthony Fokker was not that genius: his Eindecker was a copy of a french Bleriot or Morane Saulnier N which landed behind enemy lines.. Even the Dr.I was a copy of the concept introduced by the Sopwith Triplane. The materials used (on the Dr.I in particular) were not suitable for the G load requirements of the era, and as with the Albatros spars, there were several in flight structrural breaks.

Alex

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Alex
It is very possible. The book although readable does seem a tad sensational at times about stuff but my copy dates from 1967 and we probably know a lot more now than we did then. Or with more clarity.
There is sugguestion in what I've read so far that there was a lot of copying of ideas and the like

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So Anthony wasn't such a brilliant plane designer

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it's not that he wasnt a brillian man, he wasnt a good designer: some of the technical solutions (like the tubular/telescopic steel framing of the fuselage) were superb, but in the mean time there were some major deficiencies. The frame behind the Dr.I engine mount suffered torsion due to the lack of a decent structure drawing and was field modificated. The monospar wing was lighter but suffered of eccessive torsion and many Fokkers landed with several snapped ribs.. in the era of experimentation it's no surprise to see a rampant builder having such success, he was the right man at the right time, but his "non-aeronautical" background is evident (not that there was a lot of background to have though..). It's no surprise that the Fokker projects of the 30s, where the requirements started to grow bigger and bibber, were a failure..

Alex

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Anyway, he made good-looking planes :rolleyes:

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sure thing! The Fokker Dr.I is one of the coolest looking birds ever!! (way cooler than the Sopwith Triplane!). Even the D.VII and VIII are superb!
A thing that was great with german pilots of WW1 and WW2 is that they dared to paint their birds in such great liveries!

Alex

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sure thing! The Fokker Dr.I is one of the coolest looking birds ever!! (way cooler than the Sopwith Triplane!). Even the D.VII and VIII are superb!
A thing that was great with german pilots of WW1 and WW2 is that they dared to paint their birds in such great liveries!

Alex

Yeah, especially the Red Baron (Baron von Richthoven) with his all red Fokker DR.1

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one of my beloved liveries is of an Albatros V flown by a german ace pilot with glasses (!!!), dont remember the name right now, but it was overall black with two HUGE edelweiss painted on both sides of the fuselage: so elegant and impressive! :)

Alex

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sounds impressive too :rolleyes: do you have an image of that plane? I would like to see how it looks :cool:

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So Anthony wasn't such a brilliant plane designer

Anthony Fokker was more the CEO, he left the actual designing to his chief designer, whose name has escaped me right now. Fokker's brilliance was more in his work as a test pilot, and in combining vision and knowledge into one aircraft. He came up with the specifications and the ideas, but the actual designing was not his forte.

There are quite a few instances in Fokker's career where he built upon other designer's idea's. For years he fought in the courts with the Junkers family over a wing design, which they claimed (probably rightly so) Fokker stole. In the end the case was delayed for so long that the Junkers family decided to settle. Not a pretty case, and not the only one.

Fokker's company suffered heavily from his indecisiveness, stubborness and his involvement with other interests. The Fokker company was moving towards its end when WWII came along, and in 1945 it was needed again to build up post-war Holland again. I believe that this helped it survive for so long.

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Yep, That's TRUE, But still Damn nice looking eh

Very interesting stuff lad's :D :D ,

And yes I really do agree with all your view's ;) , and know of many of his copy's and their fault's :rolleyes: .

Very good Alex mate :diablo: , to point them out to the rest of the Once a week reader's out there :p .

And I have read much about the court case you mentioned Alex, Quiet a drawn out saga, I must say :eek: .

I did do a Red Baron thread a while back :cool: , If I can find it, or if some one else can link it to here, for a matter of interest to those who missed it :) .

thank's again guy's :D , I am not tooo bad Armie Mate ;) , but I am stuffed now, and Melting :o , " Gut Nacht " all, must crash ;)

Come on let's see and talk some more Nice looking old FOKKER'S :D

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Many people from the era of Anthony Fokker have had mixed feelings towards him.

If anything he was the blue collar CEO with a perfect sense for marketing, and he was quick to steal other people's thunder.

I have a copy from 1931 from his memoires called ''The Flying Dutchman'', written and edited by Fokker himself and Bruce Gould.

I'll see tonight in anything is mentioned on this Great Britain offer.

Anyway, much of the stories told in this book have been contested by others who were involved in early Fokker history themselves, that hint on the fact Fokker had a tendency to selfcenter..

Fokker is probably smiling if he can read this; ''doesen't matter what they say about you, as long as they still talk about you'' , would be completely his words..in fact he'll say he invented the phrase :D

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Anthony Fokker was more the CEO, he left the actual designing to his chief designer, whose name has escaped me right now

Reinhold Platz is the name I think.

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A Quick Translation of page 126: in the chapter ''The German Army buys planes" (no date is mentioned but must be around 1912)
In this chapter Anthony Fokkers is telling:
'' In the mean time I was approached by the German Naval officer Felix Schultz, who confided me he was in the German secret service, but also, as many other in those days, was working for the British Government. He had been one of my pupils..
He was a adventurer, scared of nothing, and a real opportunist (sic), ready for anything.
He suggested me to sell my patents to the British Government, because he was well established in the War Office. He would go to England soon anyway, as German spy, to gather information on the British seaplanes.
The bankers that so-called supported me, had already in Berlin informed the Italian and English attache's of my designs, but without success. But I was in deperate need of currency, and it seemed there was nothing to lose. This is why I happily appointed capt. Schultz as my representative in England. He registered at the AVRO aviation school in Southampton, as a sportsman with an interest in aviation. He pretended to be a novice, and stirred the crowds by suddenly learning to fly. According to his reports he did his best to rise the interest of the Britsh Navy authorities in my designs. However, they had no faith in my theories regarding automatic stability, and said they were quite satisfied with their own machines.
Schultz sent me drawings of the one of their first seaplanes that were on trial, and were considered to be top secret .
But even today the English keep a cloak of secrecy about their planes, and keep designs that are known to everyone, as a secret from their own people.

Actually , my designs were well known in Enlangd in those days. The English aviation journals at the time of the first aviation exhibition in Olympia in 1912 in London, offered in depth descriptions of my first aeroplane. It is without a doubt that the War Office had all the information on my designs that they could have wanted.
When these efforts lead to nothing, I did not pursue anymore to sell to England. After the war I chuckled when I heard that in English Parliament questions were raised as to why I did not sell my planes to England, because as a Dutchman, I could have just as well done so, as I did to Germany.

But in 1913 the English were simply not interested, as it seemed at that time it originally was with the Germans."

So this is the story according to good old Anthony himself...

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Reinhold Platz is the name I think.

Yeah, that sounds about right to me! Somehow I kept thinking it was Reinhold Pfalz, but that doesn't rhyme with Pfalz being another WWI era aircraft builder.

I'll see if I can look it up tomorrow. We've got a copy of Mark Dierikx' biography in the library at work I think. I haven't read the autobiography mentioned above (yet) but I can recommend this one: Fokker, A Transatlantic Biography