Bunch of Fokkers!

[Ferry_vO]

There is an event this weekend in the Aviodrome museum to celebrate Anthony Fokker's flight around the St. Bavo church in Haarlem on September 1st 1911 so I thought this would be a good occasion to take a few shots of all the Fokker aircraft in their collection.

This is the Fokker Spin (Spyder, named after all the wires) model 3, a replica built in 1936 by Fokker personel to celebrate the 25th anniversary. The museum has the only other surviving Spin too, which was found in Poland where the Germans hid it after stealing in in 1940.
This replica is flyable and has flown in the past on several occasions.
Because it is rather dangerous by today's standards I doubt it will fly again.. At least they performed an engine run today!

The Hirth 80hp engine:

During the engine run:

Very few pre-WW2 aircraft survive, and this F.II is a replica too:

This F.VII though is an original aircraft! It was built for Denmark but found it's way to the museum:

A Fokker Dr.1, part of the Early Birds Foundation collection. The museum has a Dr.1 replica too (There arean't any original Dr.1's left) but this one was outside in the sun and not in some dark corner. Fitted with a radial in stead of a rotary engine and flyable:

Also from the Early birds comes this D.VII replica. fitted with an original Mercedes engine. Flyable as well!:

This 1925 C.VD is the only original and complete Pre-WW2 military aircraft that survived:

Other aircraft in the collection include the C.1, F.8, B.4 flying boat and S.4 but those are far from complete (Though the S.4 is making good progress!)

 

[Ferry_vO]

The modern aircraft.

One of the best selling aircraft after WW2 was the Fokker S.11 trainer:

Which is still in use today with the 'Fokker Four' display team:

Besides the Dutch airforce the S.11 was also used by the Italians and Brazilians who built it under license. (As Macchi in Italy.) The S.12 was the nose wheel version of the S.11; the museum has the prototype in its collection:

It rarely sees daylight so this was a great opportunity to take a few photos.

Only one S.13 was ever built, the tail section still hides somewhere in the museum. The cockpit section can be found in a museum on the isle of Texel.

The last military Fokker design was this S.14. This Mk.2 was used by the Dutch space laboratory but now sits in a dark corner of the museum with it's wings clipped...

It could have been more succesful, but a crash with a prototype (That killed one of our most famous testpilots) and lots of cheap T-33's killed this project.

Fokker did continue with civil aircraft for a long time, the F.27 'Friendship' being the most succesful Fokker aircraft ever with 793 built. This is the third prototype:

This is the oldest still flyable F.27:

The 'gate guard' for the museum is this F.50 prototype:

Basically it's an F.27 with new engines and fake windows! You can still see the larger, oval F.27 windows which have been closed. The new side windows are painted on!

This Denim Air F.50 came by to do a few passenger flights:

And for now the story of Fokker ends with the F.100:

The museum also has a few aircraft that Fokker built under license, including a few gliders and a Gloster Meteor.

 

[lefty]

Ferry, your photos are, as ever, immaculate. Fascinating collection, sir....... Thank you.

 

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks Mike! Most of the outdoor shots are HDR, processed with adjusted fusion settings.

The Canon 7D is a powerful camera, and I'm still learning something new every time I use it.

 

[Hurricane91]

Hello Ferry, thank you for the wonderful photos and updates on the aircraft collection.