Early Airplanes
in KLM's West Indian Services





Fokker FXVIII Snip
Amsterdam-Curaçao 1934


Douglas DC-5
the forgotten Douglas

Lockheed L14 Electra	Douglas DC-3	Douglas DC-4
	Lockheed L749 Constellation the beloved Connie

Fokker FVIIb-3m
In 1924 KLM opened the East India route Amsterdam-Batavia with the first single engine FVII. KLM director Dr. Albert Plesman thought it might be preferable to have a plane that wouldn't just drop out of the sky when one engine failed, and he may have had a point. Admiral Byrd thought so, too, and Fokker agreed with them: To participate in the 1925 Ford contest, he cabled Amsterdam to hang two additional Wright Whirlwind engines under the high wings, creating the FVII-3m or Fokker Tri-Motor — the first tri-engine plane ever built.
This type flew in nearly every country and for nearly every larger airline of the world. It was the most popular aircraft of the time, and opened up the first long-distance routes. In 1925 it easily won the Ford reliability contest (the plane was plastered with Fokker's name all over). Henry and Edsel Ford acquired the winning plane for Commander Richard E. Byrd's north polar expedition; years later Ford produced a very similar aircraft, the Ford Tri-Motor. It was made of metal, though — the famous Tin Goose. However, being much heavier it had no more than just over half the Fokker's range (which caused Byrd much grief).

In Ernest K. Gann's Flying Circus he relates how, when Byrd visited the Ford factories and parked his Fokker in their hangar for one night, the Ford engineers recorded the form of the wing with soft copper tubing, foot by foot. It had been developed by chief designer Platz for the Fokker W.W.I fighter model D-VII. He wanted to make the wing stronger, without reinforcing cables. This resulted in a much thicker wing with more drag and, because of that, more lift; it therefore could be shortened again to get the same lift with less drag. This wing was used on all Fokker commercial aircraft until 1940.

Ford Tri-Motor:
noisy, heavy, slow, bone-rattling gas-guzzler
and ugly, too

Some FVIIb Records

1925	F.VIIa-3m Atlantic	Winner, Ford Reliability Tour	Aircraft was acquired by Edsel Ford
1926	F.VIIa-3m	Richard E. Byrd North Pole flight with Floyd Bennett	The same 1925 aircraft, now named Josephine Ford
	F.VIIb Detroiter	Sir Hubert Wilkins North Pole flight attempt	Aircraft damaged in test flights and sold to Charles Kingsford Smith
	F.VIIa	Charles Lindbergh	Fokker refused Lindbergh this aircraft (too risky) and Lindbergh acquired his Ryan. One wonders about Lindbergh's theories on the advantages of a single engine. True, most two engine planes then couldn't fly on anyway when they lost one; but the F-VIIb flew on when losing two. Lindbergh defending his choice comes across almost as weird as his Nazi sympathies.
1927	C-2 America	Byrd Atlantic crossing; Bert Acosta, Bernt Balchen, George Noville	Six weeks after Lindbergh's record crossing, in very bad weather emergency landing in sea near Le Havre after 43 hours
	C-2 Bird of Paradise	First flight over the Pacific Hegenberger and Maitland	from Oakland, CA, to Wheeler Field, Hawaii; 3860 kms over water in 25 hours
	F.VIIa	KLM opens first regular air traffic route Amsterdam-Batavia, East Indies.	The aircraft was taken apart and shipped back home by ocean freight.
1928	F.VIIb-3m Southern Cross	First Pacific Crossing Kingsford Smith, co-pilot Ulm	First Pacific crossing: 6,780 nautical miles (over 12,000 kms), in under 88 hours; stops at Honolulu, Suva and Brisbane.
	F.VIIb-3m Friendship	Admiral Byrd South Pole flight aircraft equipped with floats	Sponsor Edsel Ford resented the use of a competitor's model. To his chagrin, Byrd was forced to use Ford Tri-Motors and sold his plane to Amelia Earhart.
	F.VIIb-3m Friendship	First woman to cross the Atlantic Captain Stulz, mechanic Gordon	Byrd's aircraft took passenger Amelia Earhart from New Foundland to England in 20 hrs and 40 min.
	F.VIIb-3m Southern Cross	First Tasman Sea crossing Kingsford Smith, co-pilot Ulm	Australia-New Zealand, first leg of world circumnavigation
1929	C-2a Question Mark	150 hr non-stop Spaatz, Eaker, Quesada and Halvorsen	US Army record with in-flight refueling
1930	F.VIIa-3m Southern Cross	world circumnavigation Kingsford Smith, Evert van Dijk	Tour started in 1928 Australia-New Zealand-Europe-USA

winner of the 1925 Ford competition
When you have had a look at the photos below, you'll understand why Fokker probably didn't think much more than twice about tripling his engine power. Looks more like cabinet-making than airplane-building, and gives that subtle hint as to why airplanes are still affectionately referred to as "crates". Lots of nicely varnished veneer, too. Another former Dutch aircraft manufacturer, Pander, for all I know still has a large furniture shop in the city of The Hague.
One U.S. built Fokker Universal Standard sold for $17,500. While the wings were built in Holland and shipped to the USA, the American Fokkers were different designs by A. Francis Archer and Norbert Noorduyn, built by Fokker's USA plant, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation. The Fokker Tri Motors finally lost their competitive edge in the USA because there was a crash when one of them carried famous football player Knuthe Rockne, and it was ruled this was caused by a failure of the wooden wing construction; ultimately, this was fixed in the F-XVIII where the wing was glued with Bakelite.

   
Southern Cross when covering fabric was replaced in 1967
Photographs copyright by Ron Cuskelly

   

Type	Wingspan in m	Length in m	Passengers	Engine type	Engine power HP or Lbs	First flight
FVII	22.08	14.50	8	R.R. Eagle	360	11 April 1924
F.VIIa	19.31	14.35	8	Bristol Jupiter VI	450	12 March 1925
F.VIIa-3m	19.30	14.60	8	Wright Whirlwind	3x240	4 September 1925
F.VIIb-3m	21.70	14.50	8-10	Wright Whirlwind	3x300	1927

Eight years later, via a series of models in-between, the F-XVIII was developed from the F-VIIb.


If you wonder what that name stands for, uh, you're quite right... the dirty mind is not yours.
He himself once wrote his mother: A good name is a good key!




Dutch names
and how they got to be that way.

model drawings available from Modelbouwers
some pictures from adastron

If you got this far
you'll love this one!

Blohm und Voss BV-141
the asymmetrical airplane

Color photos arranged chronologically, from airliners originating in the 1930s up to the early jetliners - the de Havilland Comet and the Boeing 707. Includes older versions of current models as the Boeing 727 and 747. Many photos show these veteran airliners in recent action.

To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight James Tobin

Military and civil aviation from the beginnings to the present day: - The history of powered flight - The world's great aircraft     through the ages - A-Z directory of almost     1500 manufacturers - Technical glossary - Over 1000 reference     illustrations

Search Now:

SEARCH this site or the Web





copyright notice
all material on this site, except where noted
copyright © by , curaçao
reproduction in any form for any purpose is prohibited
without prior consent in writing