Fokker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fokker | |
|---|---|
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| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Successor | Stork N.V. |
| Founded | 22 February 1912 |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Location | Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Products | Commercial airliners Military aircraft |
| Key people | Anthony Fokker |
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.
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[edit] History
At age 20, Fokker 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 company, Fokker Aeroplanbau, later moving to Schwerin, where the current company was founded, as Fokker Aviatik GmbH, on February 22, 1912[1]
[edit] 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 Dreidecker, and Fokker D.VII. These were all built for the German army to be used during World War I. Fokker gained further fame with his synchronizer gear, allowing machineguns to be fired through the propeller, resulting in the Fokker Scourge. The famous Dr.I triplane was used by Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", towards the end of his career, who achieved over a quarter of his 80 air combat victories in Fokker aircraft.
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 Dreidecker entered service.
[edit] 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 rather than military airplanes, although Fokker would continue to design and build the latter, 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 in Kansas. 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.
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 divested by GM in 1948). A year later, discontented at being totally subordinate to GM management, Fokker resigned. On December 23, 1939, Anthony Fokker died in New York City.
[edit] 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 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 bombing.
Ironically enough, the one company that evolved from the original Fokker Aircraft Corporation that remained in operation, North American Aviation, developed and produced three types of aircraft for the US and Allied forces that had a profound impact on the war: the AT-6 Texan/SNJ (US Navy designation)/Harvard (RAF designation) advanced trainer on which the vast majority of US and Allied pilots trained, the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, and the P-51 Mustang fighter which is often credited with the defeat of the German Luftwaffe and establishment of Allied air supremacy in the last year of the war.
[edit] Post-World War II rebuilding
Rebuilding after the war proved difficult. The market was flooded with cheap surplus airplanes 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.
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 F-27 Friendship was introduced, Fokker's most successful airliner. The Dutch government contributed 27 million guilders to its development. 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.
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 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 at Fokker and at SABCA in Belgium with parts from the five countries involved.
The assembly-hall at Fokker with lots of F-16s
[edit] 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 January 1 2006 it was taken over by EADS-Space Transportation.
[edit] 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 modernized 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 organizational problems.
[edit] 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 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.
Meanwhile, Rekkof Aircraft ("Fokker" backwards) is attempting to restart production of the Fokker 70 NT, supported by suppliers and airlines.
[edit] Famous Fokker aircraft and pilots
- In 1915, the Fokker E.I was introduced into the German air force, leading to the first Fokker Scourge.
- Manfred von Richthofen flew a Fokker Dr.I triplane (1917–1918)
- The introduction of the Fokker D.VII into the German air force in 1918 led to a second Fokker Scourge.
- In 1923, Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready completed the first non-stop flight spanning the North American continent in a Fokker T-2.
- In 1927, Richard E. Byrd completed his trans-Atlantic flight from New York City to Paris in a Fokker F.VII.
- In 1928, 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 a Fokker F.VII piloted by Wilmer L. Stultz.
- In 1928, Charles Kingsford-Smith completed the first trans-Pacific flight in another F.VII.
- The Fokker S-14 Machtrainer was the first jet training aircraft in the world specifically designed and built to that end (1951).
[edit] Fokker airplanes
[edit] 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
- Fokker V.2 and V.3
- Fokker V.4
- Fokker F.I (V.5)
- Fokker Dr.I
- Fokker V.6
- Fokker V.7
- Fokker V.8
- Fokker V.9, V.11, V.12, V.13. V.14, and V.16
- Fokker D.VI
- Fokker D.VII (V.11/13)
- Fokker V.17 - V.25
- Fokker E.V/D.VIII (V.26)
- Fokker V.27 - V.37
- Fokker C.I (V.38)
[edit] 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
[edit] American designs
[edit] 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)
[edit] References
- Bowers, Peter and McDowell, Ernest. Triplanes: A Pictorial History of the World's Triplanes and Multiplanes. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 1993. ISBN 0-87938-614-2.
- Dierikx, Marc. Fokker: A Transatlantic Biography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. ISBN 1-56098-735-9.
- Molson, K.M. Pioneering in Canadian Air Transport. Winnipeg: James Richardson & Sons, Ltd., 1974. ISBN 0-919212-39-5.
- Nevin, David. The Pathfinders (The Epic of Flight Series). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1980. ISBN 0-8094-3256-0.
- Postma, Thijs. Fokker: Aircraft Builders to the World. London: Jane's, 1979. ISBN 0-531-03708-0.
[edit] External links
- Stork Aerospace official website
- Rekkof official website
- Fokker, a living history
- FokkerPilot.net - Your resource on the net!
- Fokker aircraft website
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