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Anthony Fokker In World War 1

Decent Essays

Topic 1 - Pioneers

Anthony Fokker, discuss his contributions to the development of aviation during and after World War One.

Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker, born in the Dutch East Indies, in what is now Indonesia in 1890. However, the Fokker family soon moved back to their native Holland, where Anthony received his early primary and early secondary education. Presumably, it was in these early years that Fokker became intrigued by flight.

“By the time he was 20 years old, while still in Germany, Anthony designed, developed and built his first aircraft, and then taught himself how to fly it” ("Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker," n.d., para. 3). By the outbreak of World War One in July of 1914, Fokker had set up an aircraft manufacturing plant and a flight school. Initially, Germany purchased his M.5 fighter, a mono-wing aircraft based on a French Morane-Saulnier G design utilizing steel tubing and a new airfoil and tail design. In fact, it was this aircraft that Fokker developed perhaps his most notable invention the Synchronization Gear. This mechanism allowed the placement of the aircrafts machine guns behind the propeller and synchronizing the …show more content…

The Trimotor was also the aircraft of choice for Commander Richard Byrd, who with the help of his co-pilot Floyd Bennett were the first to fly over the North Pole in 1926. Finally, Fokker immigrated to the United States and established the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, later renamed the Fokker Aircraft Corporation. By and large, Fokker aircraft were among the most common used by both American and European airlines. However, in the late nineteen twenties, due to his reluctance to invest in new technologies and poor quality control. Consequently, Fokker was forced to sell a controlling portion of his company to General Motor and finished his days out there as a consultant on various

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