Anthony Fokker – Biography of Anthony Fokker

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The name of Anthony Fokker (1890-1939) is intrinsically linked to the series of airplanes that he designed and that, used by the Germans during the First World War, came to star in the era of “air fights”.

Anton Herman Gerard ‘Anthony’ Fokker was born in Kediri, Java, on April 6, 1890. Already established in Germany, Fokker he built his first airplane in 1910 when he was only 20 years old, teaching himself to fly. Two years later he established his own small aircraft factory located in Wiesbaden.

His first plane, Spin IIt was produced in 1910, but could only handle 100-yard flights. His successor, the Spin IIIt was a failure similar to the following year. It was just with him Spin III, which was successful, and it was this model that initially interested the German authorities in 1913.

With the war declared in August 1914, Fokker he offered his services to both sides; the Allies declined his offer, but the Germans saw the potential for dominating the skies. Consequently, his aircraft company grew rapidly as orders continued to grow; subsequently he obtained German citizenship.

Among the successful biplane and triplane designs produced by Fokker during the war the D-VII, developed in 1917 with the help of the advice of Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). The D-VII, which entered service on the Western Front in April 1918, turned out to be stronger and faster than the Allied aircraft in use at the time.

The company of Fokker also invented the so-called “switch gear“which made it possible for a machine gun to fire through the propeller blades of the aircraft. His development of the switch gear was ahead of the French efforts conducted on the same lines by Roland Garros.

This device initially gave German pilots a significant advantage over their Allied counterparts, when it was installed on aircraft. Fokker ‘E’; while the allied governments struggled to develop an equivalent mechanism (the Airco DH2 and the Nieuport 17).

When the war ended Fokker he devoted himself to the development of commercial aircraft, this time in the Netherlands. During the 1920s it sold aircraft based on the D-VII to the Dutch air force.

Fokker he moved to the United States in 1922, and later naturalized. For a period he was president of the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. He died on December 23, 1939.