FOKKER

NETHERLANDS (see also List of Individuals)

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6.4.1890 Kediri, Java/ID - 23.12.1939 New York/USA

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Anthony H.G. Fokker was born in the former Dutch East Indies, today's Indonesia. His family returned to Haarlem, Holland, where he attended school. He taught himself to fly in 1910 with his first machine before having ever seen an airplane in flight. He took his airplane to Russia in 1912 to enter an international competition in Moscow. During World War I, he offered his designs to various countries but only Germany accepted. He thus there founded a factory and subcontracted with thirty-five others. Eight thousand Fokker war aircrafts were built, often equipped with the synchronized machine gun to fire through the propellers. In 1919, Fokker returned to Holland with a large fortune, a great amount of manufacturing equipment and founded an airplane factory in Amsterdam for both military and commercial purposes. Emigrating to the USA in 1922, he founded the Atlantic Aircraft Company later absorbed by General Motors and renamed Fokker Aircraft. In 1930, he sold his interests to General Aviation Corporation.

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Fokker was one of the great airplane designers of the 20th century. Many of his airplanes made world records and were used on famous flights. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith flew in 1928 his Fokker "Southern Cross" from Ireland to Newfoundland across the Pacific Ocean. Richard E. Byrd flew across the Atlantic in a Fokker design, and Floyd Bennett in 1926 over the North Pole. Kelly and Macready, the Air Corps pilots, made the first non-stop transcontinental flight, Maitland and Hegenberger flew from San Francisco to Hawaii, and Amelia Earheart flew across the Atlantic. Fokker became an US citizen and was interested during his last years also in the design of streamlined motor boats. He was a founder, Member, and a Fellow of the Aeronautical Sciences Institute.

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_{E.J. McMurray, ed. Gale Research: New York.}

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