Anthony Fokker
Anthony Fokker

Anthony Fokker was born in Kediri Java, he returned to Holland with his family in 1894. By age 20 he had produced what was believed to be the fastest, most stable aircraft in the world.

Anthony Fokker
  • Nationality: Dutch
  • Date of Birth: April 6, 1890
  • Place of Birth: Kediri Java
  • Date of Death: December 23, 1939
Aircraft Designs:

When World War I began, Anthony Fokker was already a successful aircraft designer-producer. Although the records were destroyed in World War II, it is known that he produced more than sixty distinct aircraft designs during this period including the E series, the D-VII, which was probably the best fighter of the war and the DR-1 tri-plane. There are claims that he developed the machine gun synchronizer in just 48 hours after being given the assignment.

One of the reasons for his success was the fact that he constantly kept the pilot in mind. He personally flew and tested his own designs and continued this philosophy throughout his life. He sought out the advice of the men on the flight line and brought into his team the best engineers he could find.

In the postwar years Anthony Fokker emigrated to the U.S. and continued his work in the design and production of transport aircraft. It was his famous tri-motor aircraft on which airlines of the World were based in the late 1920's. It was these rugged, high aircraft that the great air explorers made famous: the U.S. Air Corp's Fokker T-2 which made the first nonstop transcontinental flight from New York to San Diego, Byrd's Fokkers which flew over the Poles, the great endurance flight of the Question Mark, and Kingsford Smith's Southern Cross.