Fokker - Between the Wars
Fokker foresaw the Allies' demand that the Fokker factories be destroyed and fled to the Netherlands at the end of the war, where he reestablished his company with hundreds of smuggled planes and engines. There, he focused his attention on the need for a commercial airliner. He developed the F.2, which could carry four passengers in an enclosed cabin while cruising at 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour). This aircraft became the forerunner for airliners used all over the world since then.
Using one aircraft to tow another, from takeoff to full flight and release, dates to World War I when it was first proposed by Anton Fokker. There is no evidence, however, that aerotow was used during World War I for military purposes. In the 1920s, Fokker's aerotow idea caught on with European sailplane pilots as a way of quickly achieving soaring altitude. When the glider is towed to a predetermined release altitude, the tow rope is released by the sailplane pilot who then relies on flying skills to stay aloft as long as possible. By the time the sport of soaring had spread to the United States, aerotowing had become the standard method of launching sailplanes throughout the world.
At the request of the American Army Air Service, Fokker developed the F.4 in 1920, which held 11 passengers. The F.4 set records for endurance, distance, and speed, peaking in 1922 with the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight, when Army Air Service pilots Oakley Kelly and John McReady flew from New York to San Diego, California, in 26 hours, 51 minutes.
Fokker established a company in the United States in 1924, the Atlantic Aircraft Company, which later became the General Aviation Corporation. There, he developed the Fokker F.7 Trimotor. Licenses to build the Trimotor were given to factories in seven countries as well as in Fokker's U.S. plants. Juan Trippe's Pan American Airways bought the Trimotor and other airlines followed. The Fokker Trimotor, along with the Ford Trimotor 4-AT, became the commercial airliner of the early years of aviation.
The Fokker Trimotor was also the airplane used for many pioneering flights. Admiral Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew a Fokker Trimotor named the Josephine Ford over the North Pole. Admiral Byrd also flew a Fokker Trimotor from New York to Paris six weeks after Charles Lindbergh's famous transatlantic flight. Australian Charles Kingsford Smith flew a Trimotor from San Francisco to Australia. Amelia Earhart rode the Trimotor Friendship in 1928 to become the first woman passenger to fly across the Atlantic. The Fokker Trimotor also participated in the first air refueling, the first circumnavigation of the globe by airplane, and the first California-to-Hawaii flight.
In 1931, since he had enough work in the Netherlands, Fokker withdrew from activities in the United States. Americans also lost trust in his planes when an F.10 crashed in 1931 and killed the famous football coach Knute Rockne along with the rest of its passengers. In Europe he expanded the trimotor design to a larger airliner that could hold as many as 32 people. But his company continued to focus mainly on military aircraft. After 1934, the Fokker company concentrated on the design and production of military aircraft, at the same time acting as European marketing office for the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 all-metal planes. Fokker's first own all-metal aircraft, the T.9 bomber, flew in 1939 and design work began on the F.24, intended as a DC-3 replacement. The T.9 bomber became the company's first all-metal aircraft in 1939.
On December 23, 1939, after a three week battle with pneumococcus meningitis, Anthony Fokker died. He was survived only by his mother. Anthony Fokker died in the USA at the early age of 49 from the complications of a relatively minor nose operation, but his illustrious name lived on through the company he had created.
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