Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in 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

At age 20, Fokker built his first plane, 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 February 22 1912

World War I

Fokker capitalized on having sold several Fokker Spin monoplanes to the German government, and always the opportunist, he 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 in the fuselage, and with minor alterations to the outline of the rudder and undercarriage and a new aerofoil section. Weyl 1965, pp.65-67. When it was realized that it was desirable to arm these scouts with a machine gun firing through the propellor, Fokker developed a synchronization gear similar to that patented by Franz Schneider. Weyl 1965, p.96. Fitted with a developed version of this gear, the M.5 became the Fokker Eindecker this, due to its revolutionary armament, became one of the most feared aircraft over the western front, and was known as the Fokker Scourge until air supremacy was won away by aircraft such as the Nieuport 11 and Airco DH.2. Schneider sued Fokker over the use of his patents and won, however Fokker managed to evade paying up.Fact: date=August 2008

After having evolved the Eindecker into a series of biplane scouts (Fokker D.I) the design was starting to show its age and Fokker was no longer able to keep it competitive, so he arranged for the German government to force an amalgamation with Junkers, and produced a new aircraft using the knowledge he had gained from Junkers of the advantages to be found with using thicker high lift airfoils. Once he had gained access to Junkers aerodynamic researches, he arranged for the merged companies to be split again, and continued to build the new fighters without any recompense to Junkers for his work. Aircraft that resulted from this theft included the Fokker D.VI, Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker (the mount of the Red Baron), Fokker D.VII (the only aircraft ever referred to directly in a treaty: all DVII's were singled out for handover to the allies in ther terms of the armistice agreement) and the Fokker D.VIII.Fact: date=August 2008