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 Schwerin, 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, and its operations were sold to competitors.

History

Fokker in Germany

At age 20, while studying in Germany, Anthony Fokker built his initial aircraft, 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 the Görries suburb just southwest of Schwerin, where the current company was founded, as Fokker Aviatik GmbH, on 12 February 1912.

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.

Fokker (disambiguation)

Fokker may refer to:

See also

Fokker 50

The Fokker 50 is a turboprop-powered airliner, designed as a refinement of and successor to the highly successful Fokker F27 Friendship. The Fokker 60 is a stretched freighter version of the Fokker 50. Both aircraft were built by Fokker in the Netherlands. The Fokker 60 has been operated by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNAF), ex-RNAF aircraft are also in service with the Peruvian Naval Aviation.

Development

Fokker 50

The Fokker 50 was designed after sales of the Fokker F27 Friendship, which had been in continual production since 1958, were beginning to decline by the 1980s. Design of the Fokker 50 started in 1983, with DLT and Ansett Airlines of Australia being launch customers.

Fokker built two prototypes derived from F27 airframes, the first of which flew for the first time on 28 December 1985. Certification of the Fokker 50 by the Dutch aviation authority RLD was successfully completed in 1987 and the first production aircraft was delivered to DLT of Germany. Production ended in 1996 after the Fokker Aircraft Company went into liquidation, with the last aircraft delivered the following year. By the end of the program, 213 Fokker 50s had been produced. As of August 2006 a total of 171 Fokker 50 aircraft remained in airline service. Major operators included: Avianca (10), Denim Air (12), Skyways Express (18) and VLM Airlines (20). Some 27 other airlines including Air Astana also operate smaller numbers of the type.