In the summer of 1919, the first post-war aviation exhibition opened in Amsterdam. Holland, France, England and Italy took part in it. Fokker instantly grasped the idea that was in the air: Holland could play an important role in aviation. Indeed, after the war, the victorious countries did not develop any new military or civilian aircraft, trying either to quickly get rid of the aging products of the war years, or somehow adapt them for civilian needs. The defeated countries, deprived of the right to create combat vehicles, focused their attention on civil aircraft construction. In neutral Holland, an ideal situation has developed for the development of both military and civil aviation.
In July 1919, Fokker founded NV (Nederlandsche Vliegenfabriek - Dutch Aviation Plant). Chief Designer R. Platz, by order of Fokker, developed the first four-seater aircraft - the prototype of a long series of passenger aircraft, which in the 1920s spread the glory of Anthony Fokker all over the world.
Fokker's aircraft quickly proved their reliability during operation, and at the end of 1923, the KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) management ordered an 8-seat passenger plane to NV. The design was "typically Fokker's": a cantilever two-spar wing with a thick profile with plywood sheathing and a fuselage with a steel tube frame. The pilot's cabin, at the request of the customer, was equipped with dual controls, and the chassis had a reinforced structure for landing on unprepared sites. The design of this machine was led by Walter Rethel. Work proceeded quickly, and on April 11, 1924, the single-engine high-wing F. VII made its maiden flight. Although the tests were successful, and the KLM board remained satisfied, only 5 aircraft were built …
Here are just the facts. V. Retel parted with the company and returned to Germany. R. Platz took his place, taking young engineers Jan Rosenschon, Maurice Billing and Bert Grase as assistants. The new design team proceeded to modernize the F. VII. Grase designed a new wing with elliptical tips. The shape of the ailerons has also changed - now they have been inscribed in the contours of the wing. Rosenschon replaced the pyramidal landing gear with a more elegant design. These modifications improved the aircraft's aerodynamics and slightly changed its appearance. Contrary to established practice, Anthony Fokker did not assign a new serial number to the aircraft, but used the old one, slightly changing it, now the car was called F. Vila. What was the reason for the departure from tradition? Perhaps in the recent success of F. VII, flying from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta).
It is curious that the company was engaged in the modernization of F. VII on its own initiative, and at first this did not arouse enthusiasm among consumers. But when Graze, who was a good pilot, set several altitude and climb records on the new models, even the hearts of KLM officials thawed. On demonstration flights, Graze performed “loopholes” and “immelmans” unusual for passenger cars. The effect of the flights was deafening: the "seven" won the hearts of Europeans. The planes ordered by the Dutch airline were equipped with 400-horsepower Gnome-Ron Jupiter air-cooled engines, but the main power plant of the Seven was the British Bristol-Jupiter engines, which had the same power, but higher reliability.
Fokker has long been attracted to the American market. Once he had already tried to penetrate there, and then fate gave him a new chance. In 1925, Henry Ford and his son Edsel announced the Ford Reliability Tour. The participants had to cover about 2000 miles in 6 days on the Detroit - Chicago - Iowa City - Kansas City - Indianapolis - Columbia - Cleveland - Detroit route. The Fords were not philanthropists. The main goal of the "tour" was to advertise the Ford aircraft. The American king of automobiles became interested in commercial aviation in the early 1920s, when no one in the United States dreamed of air travel. To gain experience, Ford opened a regular airline between Detroit and Chicago, serving Ford enterprises, and brought in the aircraft designer W. Stout. Stout studied the experience of European firms, which at that time were dominated by Fokker and Junkers. The first was a supporter of wood-steel structures with a wooden wing and fuselage, the frame of which was welded from steel pipes. The second was a pioneer of all-metal aircraft construction and corrugated duralumin sheathing. Fokker's machines were cheaper to manufacture, did not require complex and expensive equipment, but Junkers' machines were more resistant to hangar-free storage and worked well in different climates. Stout combined all these advantages: he took a Fokker plane for the prototype, but made it all-metal, following the example of Junkers.
Confident in the high qualities of his Tin Goose, Ford was not afraid to invite Fokker to take part in the competition. Fokker also needed advertising on the American continent. And this required a victory, which could be ensured by careful preparation. And now Fokker sends a telegram to the company: urgently install two additional motors on the "seven". Recently, he and Platz were already wondering how F. VII might look with them. Fokker proposed to "drown" them and the nacelles in a thick wing. But it turned out to be impossible to implement this option without a serious alteration of the wing set in a short time. And Platz sacrificed aerodynamics in favor of the times, "hanging" both engines under the wing on landing gear struts. By arranging all three Whirlvy-4 engines with a capacity of 200 hp. in one plane, he was able to completely eliminate the occurrence of unfolding moments. Leaving the wing intact, Platz achieved another win, which in itself promised an increase in consumer demand: the usual "seven" easily turned into a bi- and trimotor. From a practical point of view, the design turned out to be perfect, and its influence is still felt in the fastening of jet turbines suspended from pylons under the wings of modern airliners.
On September 4, 1925, the F. VIIa-3m (3m - three-engine) took to the skies for the first time, and three days later Antoni Fokker personally demonstrated his new aircraft to the public. Immediately after the "presentation", the trimotor was disassembled and sent to the USA. He arrived in Detroit on October 26, two days before the start of the competition. Never forgetting that advertising is the engine of commerce, Fokker ordered the name of his company to be written in huge letters on the wing and fuselage of the aircraft.
Days later, thousands of Americans blocked the roads leading to Dearborn, near Detroit. It was beginning to get dark, a fine cold rain was sowing. At the Ford airfield, a powerful searchlight was lit, a beam was directed into the sky in order to somehow break through the dense foggy curtain. But everything was sad, hopeless … And suddenly a steeply descending plane roaring with three motors emerged from the low clouds, on the wings and fuselage of which was written in large letters: "Fokker". The crowd screamed, whistled, blew out trumpets, and to this purely American accompaniment, a second airplane with a shiny corrugated metal sheathing fell out of the clouds. It was Ford's Tin Goose. Thus ended the famous competition for reliability organized by Ford - "Ford Reliability Tour".
Experienced advertiser Fokker really managed to turn the competition into a showcase of the merits of his trimmer. Reducing the time of stops to the limit, he took off from them before anyone else, so that he would be the first to arrive at each intermediate point. This trick worked. And although the Ford Tin Goose had the shortest time in flight, so it was he who was officially the winner in the competition, the entire provincial press wrote mainly about the Fokker. It is no coincidence that one American newspaper sarcastically changed the name "Ford Reliability Tour" into "Fokker Publicity Tour" - "Fokker Advertising Contest".
Immediately after the competition, Anthony offered to conduct comprehensive tests of the trimotor, at the end of which he overtook it to Dearborn. Here Ford's son Edsel examined the car and was so delighted that he convinced his father to buy it from Fokker. Edsel Ford also bought a trimotor for Richard Byrd's polar expedition. The aircraft was named Josephina Ford, after the sponsor's youngest daughter. But the restless Fokker, when selling, demanded that his name be written on board, and as large as possible. Byrd agreed, jokingly that he would fly to the pole on a billboard. And so on May 9, 1926, the brand new F. VIIA / 3m, having flown to Svalbard, headed north. The entire civilized world watched with excitement the audacious flight of the three-engined Fokker to the top of the world. You do not need to have excessive imagination to imagine all the unusualness and danger of the first man's flight over the endless expanses of the Arctic Ocean! 2,575 km ran from Spitsbergen to the Pole and back. Fokker covered this distance in 15 hours 30 minutes at an average speed of 166 km / h. And today you can admire this plane if you manage to visit the Ford Museum.
This legendary raid went down in aviation history as the first successful attempt to fly over the North Pole. Richard Byrd was ahead of Amundsen himself, who was preparing the Norway airship for a transpolar flight. True, after half a century there were revelations that Byrd did not reach the goal. This often happens with American priorities. But, be that as it may, the F. VII, thanks to this unique and extremely risky flight, has already stood on a par with the best aircraft of its time. The following year, the polar explorer H. Vipkins on the Fokker Southern Cross trimotor made a flight from North America to Australia in nine days - a grandiose one for those times: a distance of 11 thousand kilometers. And in 1927, the Fokker's Bird of Paradise trimotor, bought by the American army, flew from San Francisco to Honolulu in Hawaii.
There were also black pages in the history of F. VII. As you know, in May 1927, Charles Lindbergh made an outstanding non-stop transatlantic flight alone from continent to continent, covering 5809 km in 33 hours and 30 minutes. In response, in August of the same year, the British Hamilton and Mushin in a single-engine F. VIIA / 1 tried to break this record on the England - Canada route. But when flying over the ocean, the connection with the plane was interrupted, and he disappeared forever.
But they say that passion is irrepressible. Roulette of Fortune was launched, and Charles Kingsford-Smith with his crew on a three-engined F. VIIВ / 3m “Southern Cross” from May 31 to June 9 made the grandiose, first ever flight across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Australia. Of course, with intermediate landings. But the distance was literally amazing - 11260 km, covered in 83 hours 38 minutes of flight time! Let's not forget that there was only 1928 on the calendar …
During his long life, F. VII got into extreme situations countless times, but in most cases he got out of them with honor. So, in 1928, the Poles Kalina, Scalas and Klozinak flew to F. VIIA from Deblin to Iraq. In front of Baghdad, the plane was thrown down by a powerful downdraft, several hundred meters, but the car survived, did not collapse. The crew escaped with bruises and abrasions. On November 28, 1928, aviators Bird, Walchen, June and Kimley took off in F. VIIA / 3m from Rosbarre towards the South Pole. It was the most difficult flight. The car, overloaded with fuel, could not gain the altitude necessary for the flight over the glaciers. I had to drain some of the fuel in flight. But new troubles came - icing and shaking of engines. But of all the scrapes, the Fokker returned unscathed, reaching its destination. Thus, both poles - two of the most difficult points of the globe - have conquered the machine of Antoni Fokker. But, perhaps, the most original trick was performed by F. VII, who held out in the air … 150 hours 40 minutes! This was the record for the duration of the flight. The aircraft with the tail number C-2A and the inscription on the fuselage “Qvestion Mark” (“Question mark”) flew along a closed route both day and night. At a certain time, a biplane-fuel tanker appeared over it, the cars equalized flight speeds, and the tanker lowered the refueling hose down …
Advertising did its job, and Fokker trimotors were bought by the USA, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal. Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. Even the French and British, who had their own highly developed aircraft industry, only sixteen firms and state-owned airlines in many countries, acquired licenses for Fokker's cars. Moreover, the aircraft was adopted by the American Aviation Corps (USAAC). Officially, it was believed that the aircraft (they were called "Model 7") were produced in the United States. In fact, Fokker's subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Company only assembled trimotors from off-the-shelf parts and installed American engines on them.
These flights, records, Black's reporting made the Fokker Trimotor more than just popular. In the eyes of the then moneybags F. VII became fashionable and prestigious (about the same as the 600th Mercedes in the eyes of the “new Russians”). And the cost of the plane was not too high: "only" $ 37,500. Wealthy people, such as Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, Viceroy of India, banker Rothschild or Czech shoe "king" Bata, acquired F. VII for personal use.
Among the powerful of this world there were also very eccentric persons. So, the Swiss Willie Sitz ordered to decorate the cabin of his plane with Karelian birch, and the Belgian financier Alfred Lowenstein, who did not like delays on the way, acquired a whole squadron of 9 cars, which he changed at intermediate airfields, like horses at post stations. The death of Lowenstein is as amazing as his life: flying in the summer of 1928 in one of his "Fokkers" over the English Channel, the banker went to the toilet and did not return! After about half an hour, the worried secretary went in search of the patron, but he did not find him in the toilet. There was only one thing left - Louwenstein, who had recently become very absent-minded, mistakenly opened the front door and stepped into the sky … To prevent this from happening in the future, Fokker ordered a special bolt to be installed on the front door of all aircraft, which the firm called "Louwenstein's bolt."
The next step in the world history of the development of passenger aircraft was the creation of four-engine aircraft. And the first to do it again was A. Fokker. In 1929, his US firm produced the F-32, a 32-seat overhead monoplane with four Pratt-Whitney Hornet engines mounted in tandem in two nacelles under the wing. The passenger compartment was divided into four compartments, with eight people in each. Crew - 2 people. However, the first copy of the aircraft sold by one of the American airlines crashed in November 1929. During takeoff, both engines on one wing failed one after the other. The car turned around, it slid onto the wing and fell. Fortunately, the passengers managed to get out of the plane before the fuel tanks exploded. Despite this incident, there were still customers for the plane - at that time Fokker enjoyed great prestige in the United States. True, there were few of them, and the production of the F-32 was limited to 10 aircraft. They flew on Western Air Express from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and were used to carry mail and passengers across the country from the Pacific Coast to New York.
In the mid-30s, Fokker's name disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. In aviation circles, other names are in the spotlight, and the merits and demerits of other aircraft are discussed.
What's the matter? What happened? Why did the aircraft that the Fokker firm in Holland continued to develop ceased to attract attention? Fokker designed about a dozen new aircraft, very advanced, in 1930-1933, but none of them went into a large series. As if fortune itself had turned its back on Fokker. The business was most often limited to five, three, two built machines, and often just one experimental one. Despite strong competition from Ford, which produces metal aircraft, including remakes of Fokker, Antonia's business was excellent, orders for new cars were already coming even from Japan and China. In the United States at the end of the 1920s, more than a third of all transport aircraft were Fokkers. Ford trimotors were in second place. Only in 1931 did the American overtake the Dutchman in the number of cars built. But this happened later, and in the late 1920s, Fokker was at the top of the wave.
He was going to build the world's largest aircraft factories in California, create unprecedented air liners. These dreams were destroyed by a series of disasters that befell the Fokker machines in the United States in 1929. And although the investigations showed that the designer was not involved in these disasters, confidence in Fokker was shaken, and some airlines rushed to burn the cars they bought from him, widely informing the public about this. Technical failures were accompanied by friction in the business world: in May 1929, General Motors bought 40% of the shares of the Fokker firm, and Antoni found himself subordinate to the board - a group of people who knew little about aviation. One of the terms of the board was the renaming of Fokker Aircraft Corporation to General Aviation Corporation. The contracts already concluded by Fokker were fulfilled, after which the construction of his cars in the United States ceased.
Anthony tried to achieve a large order at home, in Holland. In 1932 it seemed to work out. In an endless pursuit of speed, KLM commissioned N V to design an aircraft for its East Indies routes. The new car was supposed to be 55 km / h faster than the ones in service. The new Fokker F. XX Zilvermeeuw (Herring Gull) was the last wooden and last three-engined aircraft to be built by Fokker. At the same time, it was the first aircraft of the company to be equipped with a retractable landing gear.
The Fokker F. XX was introduced to the public on December 20, 1932. Built under the direction of Marius Beeling, the aircraft had a classic Fokker fuselage with a sheet steel tube structure. The fuselage had an oval cross-section, which was the first time on the company's aircraft. Earlier Fokker aircraft had rectangular hulls. The Fokker F. XX was a high wing, plywood-covered wooden wing. The plywood sheathing of the underside of the wing passed through the fuselage in such a way that the passengers were provided with the greatest possible cabin height. With a full supply of fuel, the range was 1700 km, with a full payload of up to 645 km. The Fokker F. XX developed a top speed of 305 km / h and a cruising speed of 250 km / h.
And suddenly, when the prototype F. XX was almost ready, Fokker learned that the head of the Dutch airlines Plesman was going to enter into negotiations with the American aircraft company "Douglas" on the acquisition of its liners. Anthony was shocked. He understood that in order to create an aircraft capable of competing with the twin-engine all-metal streamlined "Douglas", made using new technologies, a general reconstruction of its factories was necessary. In a feverish search for a way out, Fokker came to a paradoxical decision - to buy from Douglas a license to manufacture and sell aircraft of this company in all Western European countries! And when Plesman turned to the Americans with his proposal, it turned out that negotiations on this order should be conducted with the license holder - Fokker …
Of course, this was revenge on the renegade Plesman, but in fact, the purchase of a license did not ease Fokker's situation: his factories in Holland did not become newer, they did not have the equipment necessary for the production of all-metal "Douglases". The modernization of the factories required money, but Fokker did not have it. And although before the start of World War II he managed to sell about a hundred Douglases in Western Europe, none of them was built in Holland. Failed and his attempts to penetrate into the British aircraft industry, in order to establish the production of "Douglases" there. England, over which the threat of entry into the war was already hanging, prevented the appearance of a foreign subject in her holy of holies - in aviation. In 1936, Fokker became convinced that his field of activity was narrowed to the limits of only tiny Holland. It was at this time that some newspaper called him "The Flying Dutchman", for whom his homeland is too small.
The new era in aviation, which began after the depression of 1929-1931, brought about the prosperity of aviation figures of a completely different type than Fokker. The lengthy systematic work required to create a solid company sickened him. And although in the fever of the 1920s, his business sense helped him make certain necessary decisions, he turned out to be devoid of a sense of perspective - the onset of the era of all-metal aircraft construction took him by surprise. Since 1935, Fokker was in a state of permanent depression. No no! Don't tell me anything about airplanes! - he warned one acquaintance at the meeting. “I don’t want to think about them anymore!” In this apathetic, sluggish, flabby man, Fokker of the old years was hardly recognizable - active, quickly ignited by plans, always dressed in wide suits with many pockets for notebooks, pens and pencils. Everything that interested him in the aircraft of his competitors, he wrote down, copied, photographed. He was one of the first amateur cinematographers, leaving footage for history depicting the figures of the aviation industry, the pilots of the aces Richthofen and Voss. Fokker's personal life did not work out. “I was too absorbed in my own affairs and could not make up the happiness of the women I loved,” Antoni once said. “It seemed to me that there was nothing in the world more important than my airplanes.” It seems that these words shed some light on the real reasons for his unexpected early death.
Leo Tolstoy believed: a person dies from the fact that "the good of his true life" can no longer increase, and to people from the outside it seems that he is dying from lung disease, cancer, or from the fact that he was shot or thrown a bomb. The "blessing of the true life" of the Flying Dutchman has ceased to increase since 1930-1932, when its aircraft ceased to lead in the development of aviation. And the doctors at the Murray Hill Hospital in New York, who pronounced Fokker's death on December 23, 1939, innocently believed that it came from an infection after an operation in the nasal cavity …
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