Anthony Fokker was a colourful personality, and he was instrumental in spreading the gospel of the thick, cantilever wing. I plan to write here a few words about that glorious bit of history, and its decline and final downfall. In the meantime, you can read AR Weyl's charming book,
AR Weyl, "Fokker, the "Creative Years" .
Weyl stresses the role of Fokker's designers, in particular his long time chief engineer Reinhold Platz.
His admiring successor ir. Beeling, Fokker's first academically trained employee in the 1930's, once told us : "There is a lot of terrible gossip in the book, but it sums up pretty well what it was like."
By the way, these days I live one block away from Anthony Fokker's parental home ( and Lorentz's residential address, by the way ) in the Dutch city of Haarlem, but that is a total coincidence.
- thick wings, Junkers.
- Swarttouw, tin cans.
- government does not understand that desiging and even building aircraft is always done at a loss,
maintenance is the cash cow for the next 30 years.
- small fortune in aviation,start with a big one.
- funding is always intended to create military independence.
- Empire of the clouds, VC-10 runway Bombay.