Anton Herman Gerard Fokker (6 April 1890 – 23 December 1939) was a pioneer in aviation and a Dutch-American aircraft manufacturer.

Early life

Anthony (Tony) Fokker was born in Kediri, East Java (then Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia), son of Herman Fokker, a Dutch coffee plantation owner.

Four years later the family returned to the Netherlands and settled in Haarlem in order to provide Tony and his older sister Toos with a Dutch upbringing. Just like his father, Tony was not studious but rather played with model trains and steam engines, and did not complete his high school education. He devised a leak-proof tire but this was not an original invention and was already patented.

Move to Germany

In 1910, at age 20, Fokker was sent by his father to Germany to receive training as a mechanic. Yet his interest was in flying, prompting him to change schools. That same year Fokker built his first aircraft "de Spin" ("the Spider"), which was destroyed by his business partner who flew it into a tree. He gained his pilot license in his second "Spin" aircraft. In his own country, he became a celebrity by flying around the tower of the Sint-Bavokerk in Haarlem on 31 August 1911, with the third version of the "Spin". He also added to his fame by flying on the birthday of Queen Wilhelmina.

In 1912, Fokker moved to Johannisthal near Berlin where he founded his first own company, Fokker Aeroplanbau. In the following years he constructed a variety of airplanes. He relocated his factory to Schwerin where it was renamed Fokker Flugzeugwerke GmbH, and later shortened to Fokker Werke GmbH.

At the onset of World War I, the German government took control of the factory. Fokker remained as director and designed many aircraft for the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte), including the Fokker Dr.I, the triplane made famous in the hands of aces such as Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). In all, his company delivered about 700 military planes to the German air force.

Significance in the Development of Interrupter Gear

Fokker is often cited as having invented the synchronisation device which enabled 1st World War aircraft to fire through the spinning propellor. His role was certainly significant but there were a number of prior developments before the result was achieved for which Fokker is rightly credited.

The famous French pilot Roland Garros was shot down on 18 April 1915. His aircraft had been fitted with a deflector device, whereby metal deflector wedges were fitted to the airscrew. Garros was able to set fire to the airframe before being taken prisoner but the aircraft's gun and the armoured propellor remained intact and came into German hands.

This initiated a phase of consideration of the interrupter gear concept in the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte). Fokker was heavily involved in this process but the story of his conception, development and installation of a synchronisation device in a period of 48 hours (first found in an authorised biography of Fokker written in 1929) has been shown to be not factual. The available evidence points to a synchronisation device having been in development with Fokker's company for perhaps six months prior to the capture of Garros' machine.

However the final result of the development was Fokker's pushrod control mechanism, Gestangesteuerung which allowed the aircraft's forward-firing machine gun to fire only when the propellor was out of the line of fire. As incorporated into the famous Fokker Eindecker its use directly led to a phase of German air-superiority known as the Fokker Scourge.

Return to the Netherlands

After the war's end, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to build any aircraft or aircraft engines. In 1919 Fokker returned to the Netherlands and started a new aircraft company, the Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek (Dutch Aircraft Factory), predecessor to the Fokker Aircraft Company. Despite the strict disarmament conditions in the Treaty, Fokker did not return home empty-handed: he managed to smuggle an entire train's worth of D.VII and C.I military planes and spare parts across the German-Dutch border. This initial stock enabled him to quickly set up shop, but his focus shifted from military to civil aircraft such as the very successful Fokker F.VII trimotor.

On 25 March 1919, Fokker married Sophie Marie Elisabeth von Morgen in Haarlem. This marriage lasted four years.

Move to the US and death

In 1922, he moved to the United States and later became an American citizen. Here he established the American branch of his company, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation. In 1927, Fokker married Violet Austman in New York City.

He died in New York in 1939 from pneumococcous meningitis. He had been ill for three weeks, and was 49 years old.

Popular culture

• Fokker's nickname was The Flying Dutchman.
• Roy Focker, a central character in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (adapted as Roy Fokker in the Macross Saga of Robotech), was most likely named after Anthony Fokker and his Fokker aircraft. In flashback sequences, Roy flies a Fokker D.VII in his youth, and even gives his friend Hikaru Ichijyo (Robotech's Rick Hunter) a model of one as a gift.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Boyne, Walter J. The Smithsonian Book of Flight for Young People. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1988. ISBN 0-689-31422-1.
• Dierikx, Marc. Fokker: A Transatlantic Biography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. ISBN 1-56098-735-9.
• Molson, K.M. Pioneering in Canadian Air Transport. Winnipeg: James Richardson & Sons, Ltd., 1974. ISBN 0-919212-39-5.
• Nevin, David. The Pathfinders (The Epic of Flight Series). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1980. ISBN 0-8094-3256-0.
• Postma, Thijs. Fokker: Aircraft Builders to the World. London: Jane's, 1979. ISBN 0-531-03708-0.