Fokker Aviation BV
Fokker Aviation BV, a Dutch military and commercial aircraft manufacturer, declared bankruptcy in March 1996 after nearly 77 years of operation. Fokker produced the Fokker 50 and 60 shorthaul turboprops and Fokker 70 and 100 short- to medium-haul twin-jet aircraft, marketed as the Fokker JetLine.
Fokker Services has extensive experience supporting and converting military aircraft. It includes involvement in the final assembly of F-16s, 25 years in all F-16 Maintenance and Modification programs and including final assembly of F-16 aircraft. Fokker Services support multiple Air Forces in Europe, including RNLAF, RNoAF and RDAF. Moreover, Fokker Services is a partner in the JSF program, associate partner in the NHI NH90 Helicopter Program and is Designated Single Point of Contact for Product Support Services. Thanks to its central location in Europe with an excellent transport infra structure and beneficial tax regulations for large companies, The Netherlands is an attractive partner for participation in international programs.
Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker (1890-1939) designed Germany's most successful combat airplanes in World War I. Herman Gerard Fokker was born the son of a Dutch tea planter in Kediri Java, he returned to Holland with his family in 1894. Upon completing his general education, moved to Germany to pursue a technical education. It was in an empty Zeppelin hangar in Baden-Baden that he built his first aircraft in 1910. With this braced monoplane, the Spider, he gained his pilot's licence. Fokker decided he was ready to start his own business at the age of 22. Using his father's money, in 1912 Fokker founded Fokker Aeroplanbau at Johannisthal, an area near Berlin that had become a center for the new aeronautics industry. He moved the company to Schwerin a year later.
At the request of German army officials, Fokker demonstrated a truck-transportable reconnaissance plane he had designed. They were impressed and ordered two, launching the company's success. Although Fokker traveled to other European countries (including his native Netherlands) demonstrating the plane, no one showed an interest. They all bought their planes from French companies such as Blériot. So Fokker increased his marketing efforts toward the German military, which rewarded him by giving him a three-year contract to train German army pilots at his new flying school.
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.v Since the bankruptcy, Amsterdam-based Rekkof Restart acquired many Fokker production resources with the goal of resuming Fokker 70 and 100 assembly. The company reportedly has the financing and suppliers to initiate production of these aircraft, with first deliveries expected in spring 2000.
Following the mid-1990s financial failure of Fokker, the Netherlands' leading aerospace company, the Dutch government decided that it would be necessary to re-build a highly capable cluster of aerospace companies in the Netherlands. Shortly thereafter, JSF (then "JAST") and the Airbus A380 (then "A3XX") were chosen as the military and commercial aircraft platforms, respectively, from which to build the technical capabilities of the Dutch aerospace industry of the future. At the end of the 1990s, the Dutch government invested $100 million to directly enhance Dutch industrial capability prior to JSF's SDD phase. As an example of such Dutch efforts to prepare for SDD, Stork used this funding to research the application of it's new "Glare" material - a high-strength, lightweight composite / metal material - to the JSF.
Stork Fokker AESP had for nearly three decades been responsible for the manufacturing of various components and systems in excess of 1700 center fuselage components and more than 300 A/C have been assembled in the final assembly line. As of 2008 Stork Fokker expected to continue the delivery of Flaperons to Lockheed Martin until 2012 with a possible extension to 2016.
US industry cooperation with aerospace suppliers in partner countries is expected to benefit the JSF program because of the specific advanced design and manufacturing capabilities available from those suppliers. For example, British industry has a significant presence in the program with BAE Systems as a teammate to Lockheed Martin and Rolls Royce as a major engine subcontractor. In addition, Fokker Aerostructures in the Netherlands is under contract to develop composite flight doors for the JSF airframe.
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