Fokker F.XXXVI - Some history first!

 

The silver and blue Fokker F.XXXVI PH-AJA "Arend" in flight. Photo copyright Wikimedia

In the nineteen-thirties, Fokker was one of the biggest aircraft builders in the world. Really hard to imagine nowadays, The Netherlands being such a small country, but Fokker really had orders from all around the world. However, his reign at the top would be over by the end of the decade.
When Anthony Fokker ordered his personnel in 1934 to start building the first of the F. XXXVI (36) aircraft, he didn’t know the CEO of the KLM, Albert Plesman, never intended to buy more than just that one. He was more or less tricked into buying Fokker’s latest plane, which - in his eyes- already was obsolete when it was drawn. Not because of its intended luxury, that was quite all right for the time. It was dubbed “The Flying Hotel” and actually was extremely comfortable inside.
No, it wasn’t the luxury. It was the construction itself. A hand-welded steel frame, clad with linen and a very large wing made of plywood. Oh, and non-retractable landing gear as well. Fokker’s biggest problem was he didn’t adapt to include  modern techniques in building his aircraft. His head designer, Platz, was a self made aircraft engineer. Good, but old-fashioned. And both of them couldn’t figure out all those new modern gadgets. Blown flaps, de-icing mechanisms, retractable gears, stressed metal skin, it all went over their heads. They really were wood, fabric and wire pioneers.

Plesman on the other hand already had fallen in love with the sleek aluminium Douglas DC-2. An all-metal monocoque plane, streamlined with retractable gear, modern cockpit and very sturdy.
The sole Fokker F.XXXVI with the registration sign PH-AJA and the name "Arend" (Eagle), was delivered and deployed on European routes, instead of Fokker’s intended role for it on the Dutch East-Indies line. But Plesman wanted to use those new DC-2’s for that. The success KLM-DC2 Uiver had in the famous Melbourne race was a decisive factor to do so, but also the much higher fuel consumption of the F.XXXVI.

The big Fokker F.XXXVI "Arend" pulled by a tractor over the ramp on Schiphol Airport, 1934.
(behind it you can see the beautiful Fokker F.XX "Zilvermeeuw", which in fact had retractable landing gear.)
Copyright Wikimedia

While Fokker’s factory kept going well with military aircraft orders because of the looming war, and Fokker’s business boomed like never before (because he had arranged the sole license of selling Douglas’ aircraft in Europe), Fokker himself got bored and frustrated. Afraid for the inevitable coming war, Fokker left the Netherlands around 1937 for New York. He died, 49 years old, of respiratory ailments of which he already suffered for quite some time. His ashes were repatriated and placed in the family grave at Westerveld cemetery in Driehuis.

The last aircraft design Fokker proposed to Plesman was in late 1939, he showed a sketch of a modern-looking, all-metal plane, with retractable landing gear and a nose wheel, called the F.XXIV (24). It has some resemblance to the Douglas DC-5. It wasn’t until about ten years after the war, the plane eventually developed from this sketch took to the skies: the Fokker F.27 Friendship. (FYI: The F.25 was an odd egg-shaped twin-boom push-prop business plane and the F.26 was a proposed but never realised odd-looking airliner with two jet engines (!) mounted below the fuselage.)

For those of you who like (a bit compacted and romanticised) historical drama TV-series about aeronautics, I can really recommend “Turbulent Skies” (“Vliegende Hollanders”’ in Dutch). An eight-part series with very high production standards and superbly reproduced imagery of the times between 1919 and 1940, in which the flammable friendship between Plesman and Fokker is shown. But also their families, the planes, the struggles, the journeys and all of that. Very well done and historically quite accurate. There are only a few things that are just plain wrong. But those actually are forgivable. And that is a unique thing for me to say because I am a nitpicker. But I really liked this series as a whole. Because in the end this is a good, well-told story with some very decent acting. Here's the trailer.

Now, the model. I will build a Fokker F.XXXVI. That will be in the next entry! What I already can tell you about it is 1/100. it has been designed by Chris Palmer and I think it is beautiful. So pretty, I decided to redo it after I already had the fuselage and wings together. More next time! (very soon!)

Here is a sneak preview of how it began. (Began? Yes. This was in April. (-; .. But that model looks almost done!  Yes. I know. But it isn't. By far. More to come!)

Oh, and never mind the hand bandage; I had some temporary issues with the joints in my hand...

Well, thanks for stopping by and until very soon!

--PK