Anthony Fokker was Dutch, born in the colonial East Indies. In 1910, at age 20, he moved to Germany to pursue his interest in aviation. He soon founded his own airplane company there, and during World War I it designed a number of successful and famous fighter planes for the Germans. Fokker himself was an accomplished pilot. I wrote a previous article on the Fokker Dr.I triplane, which you can check out here.

• READ MORE: Recreating the Final Flight of the Red Baron

After losing WWI, Germany had to surrender all its warplanes and aircraft factories, including Fokker’s factory, under the Treaty of Versailles. Fokker, however, was able to bribe railway and border officials to smuggle some of his equipment back to his native Netherlands. That equipment allowed him to reestablish his company in Holland and design the Fokker F.VII, a single-engine transport for the fledgling postwar civilian market. I’m in one of those models here, in KLM colors, at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (EHAM).

The F.VII’s fuselage was fabric stretched over a steel-tube frame. Its wings were plywood-skinned. The original, single-engine version of the F.VII was powered by a variety of different models of radial engines, which ranged from 360 to 480 hp. Inside there was room for eight passengers, as well as a bathroom (the door to my right here).

The cabin was connected to the two-man cockpit by a little door under the fuel tank and starter switches. On the instrument panel, from left to right: oil pressure and temperature, altitude, another oil temperature gauge, air speed indicator (with a turn indicator below it), clock, and rpm tachometer. Around the cockpit you can see all the wires and pulleys connecting the controls to the flight surfaces outside. Turn or push the yoke and they quite clearly move. Fly by wire, indeed. The compass is basically a bowl with a magnet floating in it.

The designer of the initial F.VII was Walter Rethel, who was later hired by Willy Messerschmitt and went on to design the famous Bf 109, the main German fighter at the start of World War II.

With a single engine, even a fairly powerful one for its time, the Fokker F.VII didn’t exactly spring off the ground. It lumbers into the air and climbs gradually. Nevertheless, in the early 1920s, the F.VII became a successful early passenger transport for early airlines such as Dutch KLM and Belgian Sabena. Here I am flying over the historic center of Amsterdam.

In 1924, the F.VII even introduced flights from Amsterdam to the East Indies. Needless to say, it wasn’t nonstop and could take many days.

In 1925, automakers Henry Ford and his son Edsel began the Ford Reliability Tour, a challenge for aircraft to successfully complete a 1,900-mile course across the American Midwest with stops in 10 cities. To compete in Ford’s challenge, and make the airplane more reliable in general, Fokker had the F.VII redesigned to have three engines, adding two mounted on the side struts. The new F.VIIb/3m, decked out here in Sabena colors and flying over Brussels, became immediately popular, with 154 built. Each of the three engines was a 200 hp Wright J-4 Whirlwind.

• READ MORE: Exploring the Checkered History of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

Belgian tycoon Alfred Loewenstein, calculated to be the third-richest man in the world at his peak in the 1920s, even owned his own private Fokker F.VII. Flying over the English Channel in 1928, he had one of the most unfortunate bathroom breaks in history. You see, the door to the bathroom (left) is directly across from the door to the outside (right). It seems Loewenstein opened and walked through the wrong one and fell to his death in the water below. Though to this day, some still suspect it was murder. There’s even a book about this incident, The Man Who Fell from the Sky by William Norris.

If that were the sum of the F.VII’s history, it might be pretty uninspiring. But to tell the rest of it, I’m here at Spitsbergen in Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard for Byrd’s flight to the North Pole. Richard Byrd was a U.S. naval officer who commanded air patrols out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, during WWI. He played an active but supporting role in the first attempts to cross the Atlantic by air, and in 1926 had his big shot at fame. His Fokker F.VIIa/3m, mounted on snow skis, was named the Josephine Ford, after the daughter of Edsel Ford, who helped finance the expedition.

This was a two-man expedition, with Byrd accompanied by Navy Chief Aviation Pilot Floyd Bennett. The passenger seats were torn out and replaced with extra fuel tanks and emergency supplies.

The inside of the cockpit is quite similar to the one-engine version but with three separate throttles and tachometers (showing rpm). There was no airport in Svalbard at the time, so they had to take off from a snow-covered field—hence the skis. Byrd’s flight, from Svalbard and back, took 15 hours and 57 minutes, including 13 minutes spent circling at their farthest north point, which Byrd claimed, based on his sextant readings, to be the North Pole.

Did he really reach the North Pole and become the first to fly over it? This remains hotly disputed to this day, with some researchers claiming that he faked his sextant readings and fell short of his goal. In that case, the true prize would belong to Norwegian Roald Amundsen, already the first to reach the South Pole by land, in his airship Norge.

• READ MORE: The Story of the Schneider Trophy and the Supermarine S.5

A few observations about flying the Fokker F.VII, at least in the sim. First, it’s not very stable, in the sense of wanting to correct back to straight and level flight. It’s sensitive to being loaded either nose-heavy or tail-heavy and requires a lot of control input. Second, that big wing really likes to glide. To descend without overspeeding, I basically have to put all three throttles back to idle and glide down.

Last, there are no differential brakes and no tailwheel. That makes the F.VII extremely hard to control on the ground, even just to taxi. That’s especially true on snow skis.

Whether Byrd truly did reach the North Pole or not, he became a huge national hero when he returned to the U.S. Byrd and Bennett were both presented with the Medal of Honor by then-President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.

The following year in 1927, Byrd outfitted a new Fokker F.VII/3m, named America, to bid for the Orteig Prize, promising $25,000 for the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris (or vice versa). Anthony Fokker himself had recently moved to the United States and was part of the team preparing Byrd and his crew—the odds-on favorite—for the Atlantic crossing. During practices, however, America—piloted by Fokker himself—crashed, injuring both Byrd and Bennett and postponing their attempt. As a result, while America was being repaired, Charles Lindbergh—an unheard-of underdog—made the flight solo in the Spirit of St. Louis, becoming an aviation legend.

• READ MORE: Simulating a Bombing Raid in an F-16

The Fokker F.VII would still achieve fame, though, crossing a different ocean at the hands of Australian pilot Charles Kingsford Smith in 1928. If you’ve ever passed through Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (YSSY) and wondered who it’s named after, you’re about to find out. (If you’re an Australian, you already know).

Movie star handsome Smith, known as “Smithy,” fought as a combat engineer at Gallipoli in WWI but soon joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot. He was shot down, injured, and returned to become a flying instructor in Australia. From that day, Smith had a dream to cross the Pacific Ocean by air from the U.S. to Australia. By 1928 he was ready to try to achieve that goal. That’s why I’m here at Oakland Municipal Airport (KOAK) in California, where he took off in his Fokker F.VIIb/3m Southern Cross. Not unlike Byrd’s airplane, the inside has been altered to make space for extra fuel tanks.

At 8:54 a.m. on May 31, 1928, Smith and his four-man crew lifted off from Oakland on the first leg of their journey to Hawaii. At the time, flying to Hawaii, much less Australia, was an extremely daunting prospect. While they had a radio with limited range, there were no radio beacons to guide them. They could only estimate a course based on the latest, often inaccurate, weather reports over the Pacific and hope that unexpected winds wouldn’t blow them off course and make them miss Hawaii entirely. As they flew over the Golden Gate— the bridge hadn’t been built yet—they knew that several aviators before them had estimated wrong and simply vanished into the vastness of the Pacific.

The first stage from Oakland to Hawaii covered 2,400 miles and took 27 hours and 25 minutes (87.54 mph). It was uneventful. But one can only imagine their joy as they arrived here over the northeast shore of Oahu.

They landed at Wheeler Army Airfield in the center of Oahu. The Southern Cross was the first foreign-registered airplane to arrive in Hawaii and was greeted at Wheeler by thousands, including Governor Wallace Rider Farrington. Smith and his crew were put up at Honolulu’s pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel to rest for the next stage.

• READ MORE: A Virtual History of the Piper Cub

The runway at Wheeler was too short for the Southern Cross to take off fully loaded, so they flew to Barking Sands on the west coast of Kauai, where a special runway had been constructed. They took off from Barking Sands at 5:20 a.m. on June 3, bound for Suva in Fiji.

The journey from Hawaii to Fiji was 3,155 miles—the longest flight yet over continuous seas. It lasted 34 hours and 30 minutes at an average speed of 91.45 mph.

Halfway across near the equator, the Southern Cross encountered a tropical thunderstorm. Keep in mind, the crew did not have the benefit of an artificial horizon. The only way it could keep level, flying blind, was keeping a close eye on airspeed, altitude, and the inclinometer (or turn indicator). Somehow, the crew weathered the storm and kept going.

The crew undoubtedly felt great relief when it spotted the green landscape of Fiji ahead. There was no airport at that time, so the Southern Cross landed on a cricket field. Once again, it was far too small to use to take off again, so after a few days’ rest, the crew relocated to a beach from which to depart for the next and final leg of the journey. Leaving Fiji on June 9, the aviators embarked on their final 1,683-mile stretch home to Australia.

Once more they encountered storms, which blew them nearly 150 miles off course. Even when the weather was clear, the unrelenting and trackless ocean must have been overwhelming.

The Southern Cross reached the Australian coastline near Ballina, well south of its intended target, and turned north toward Brisbane. As the crew reached Brisbane, it was greeted by an aerial escort. The goal was Eagle Farm Airport northeast of the city—now the location of Brisbane’s main international airport.

The Southern Cross had flown 7,187 miles (11,566 kilometers) in 83 hours and 72 minutes. The Pacific Ocean had been conquered by the air for the very first time. A crowd of 26,000 greeted Smith and his crew when they touched down at Eagle Farm.

Smith died in 1935 at 35 when his airplane disappeared over the Indian Ocean while attempting to break the England-Australia speed record. His career was filled with both triumph and scandal, but he is still considered Australia’s great aviation hero. If you visit Brisbane’s airport, you can still see the real Southern Cross on display in a dedicated hangar.

The Fokker F.VII continued as a popular airliner into the 1930s. However, the vulnerability of its fabric-and-wood construction became apparent following a 1931 TWA crash that resulted in the death of famed University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. As a result, the Fokker F.VII gave way to all-metal airliners such as the Boeing 247, Lockheed L-10 Electra, and eventually the DC-3.

One of the most popular early successors to the Fokker F.VII was the Ford Trimotor, basically an all-metal version of the F.VII. For all their sponsorship, the Fords seem to have gotten something out of it in the end. Anthony Fokker, nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman,” lived most of the rest of his life in the U.S. and died at  49 in New York in 1939 from pneumococcal meningitis.  

If you’d like to see a version of this story with more historical photos and screenshots, you can check out my original post here. This story was told utilizing the “Local Legend” Fokker F.VII add-on to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, along with liveries and scenery downloaded for free from the flightsim.to community.

The post Reaching Uncharted Corners of the Globe in a Fokker F.VII appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio

“Many have asked about the National Museum of the United States Air Force curators’ favorite artifacts,” a museum spokesperson tells FLYING. But with more than four dozen curators, the list is not a short one.

“Members of museum’s curatorial team, consisting of more than four dozen professionals in the Research, Collection Management, Exhibits, and Restoration Divisions, are consistently drawn to artifacts that embody the people, events, organizations, places, and technologies that have shaped the history and heritage of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force,” the spokesperson said.

“Choosing a favorite aircraft is a tough one. Each curator typically provides a different response—some have more than one, and their favorite aircraft could be located in preservation storage, on display at the museum, or on loan and display to another organization or institution,” they added. “Regardless of the choice, our curators hope guests will pay special attention to some of these aircraft listed below when visiting the museum onsite or online.”

Among the aircraft that curators considered to be favorites:

B-17F Memphis Belle

X-15-A2

F-104C Starfighter

SPAD XIII

P-26 Peashooter

P-51D Mustang

Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero

Fokker DVII

F-86 Sabre

F-100D Super Sabre

A-1E Skyraider

MH-53M Pave Low IV

VC-137 (SAM 26000)

Visitor Favorites

“The National Museum of the United States Air Force has 19 acres of indoor exhibits and features more than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles,” the spokesperson said. “Among the most popular exhibits and aircraft that visitors flock to include:

• Early Years Gallery: The Wright 1909 Military Flyer, the first military heavier-than-air flying machine.
• World War II Gallery: The B-17F Memphis Belle, which is part of the “Crippling the Nazi War Machine: USAAF Strategic Bombing in Europe exhibit. The famed B-17F Memphis Belle became the first heavy bomber to return to the U.S. after flying 25 missions over Europe. The Belle’s 26th mission was a widely-publicized war bond and morale-boosting tour with more than 30 stops across the U.S.
• Korea and Southeast Asia War Galleries: The “MiG Alley” exhibit tells the story of early jet combat between F-86 Sabres and MiG-15s over Korea. The B-52D looms over the Southeast Asia War Gallery and was part of key air campaigns such as Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Linebacker I and II.
• Cold War Gallery: YF-117 stealth fighter, B-36 Peacemaker bomber, SR-71, and B-2. The size, shape and speed of these four aircraft pushed the boundaries of aerospace engineering through the Cold War. The museum’s B-2 is the only B-2 on display in any museum.
• Space Gallery: The Space Shuttle Exhibit features NASA’s first Crew Compartment Trainer (CCT-1). As a major exhibit component in that gallery, visitors can walk onto a full-size representation of a NASA space shuttle payload bay and look inside the CCT-1 cockpit and mid-deck areas. 
• Presidential Gallery: The VC-137C, also known as SAM (Special Air Mission) 26000, was used by eight presidents—Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton. The Presidential Gallery gives visitors the opportunity to view an historic collection of presidential aircraft, and walk through four of them.
• Global Reach Gallery: C-130E Hercules (Spare 617), anchors the “A Force For Good: Department of the Air Force Humanitarian Missions” exhibit. Demonstrating the history and role the Air Force plays in humanitarian operations to assist people domestically and around the world, the exhibit includes: aerial deliveries, goodwill missions, relief and rescue, firefighting, and critical care responses. Artifacts on display include diving equipment used during the Thai Cave Rescue, and firefighting tools used to combat wildfires in Alaska. You can also see a fully assembled Transport Isolation System.
• Research and Development Gallery: XB-70 Valkyrie bomber. The futuristic XB-70A was originally conceived in the 1950s as a high-altitude, nuclear strike bomber that could fly at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound). Any potential enemy would have been unable to defend themselves against such a bomber. It is the only Valkyrie still in existence.
• Throughout the museum: the “Women in the Air Force” exhibit. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force honors women with an exhibit highlighting their achievements in civilian and military aviation with emphasis on the U.S. Air Force and its predecessors. The exhibit covers historical issues, changes in laws and attitudes, and women’s contributions. Specific women and groups from all eras and various career fields are noted to emphasize the impact women have played in establishing current positions in the Air Force.

The post Museum Spotlight: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It was the tail end of what has come to be known as the Golden Age of Aviation. Only 36 years had passed since Wright made the first powered flight in a kite-like, heavier-than-air craft, but much had changed. Aviation had grown into a bustling, highly competitive industry marked by innovative developments and widespread experimentation. 

Pioneer pilots were regularly setting records for speed, distance, and altitude while pushing airframe and engine technology to the limit and often beyond. With World War II on the horizon, aviation was about to prove its strategic importance domestically and abroad.

Today, aircraft of various shapes and sizes are common sights, yet they remain technological marvels. Aviation Day is a time to reflect on how far aviation has come and consider where it might head in the future. Below are museums and other organizations holding events to mark the occasion.

National Aviation Day

First Flight Society National Aviation Day Celebration
Dare County Regional Airport (KMQI)
Manteo, North Carolina

The First Flight Society will celebrate its fourth annual National Aviation Day event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free event includes warbirds and other aircraft on display, numerous exhibitors, food trucks, and more. Presentations will include keynote speaker Larry E. Tise, a renowned historian who was the Wilbur & Orville Wright Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University from 2000 to 2015. Tise will give a talk titled “The Elusive Orville Wright from Kitty Hawk and Beyond.“

• READ MORE: Best Fly-In Festivals and Fairs

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina
First Flight Airport (KFFA)

If you are already in the Outer Banks area for the festivities at KMQI, you should stick around for an evening program at the Kill Devil Hills site where the 1903 Wright Flyer made history. The National Park Service and its partner organization, Outer Banks Forever, will welcome J. “Bob” Balaram of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who will give a series of talks on Friday and Saturday. Those unable to attend in person can stream the events. Balaram was chief engineer for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its development, testing, and mission on Mars. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made its first Martian flight on April 19, 2021, marking the first powered flight on another planet. 

Wings Over the Rockies Museum

Centennial Airport (KAPA)
Denver, Colorado

Celebrate National Aviation Day with pay-as-you-wish admission at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. Numerous exhibits include the Bell UH-1M Iroquois helicopter, affectionately known as the Huey, which helped transform the nature of mobile warfare during the conflict in Vietnam. There is also a three-quarter scale model of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing fighter. You might also check out the museum’s Exploration of Flight center at Centennial Airport. The Air & Space Museum is roughly a 14-mile drive from the airport.

• READ MORE: Late-Summer Air Shows Feature WWII Aircraft

Henry Ford Museum

Dearborn, Michigan
Detroit City Airport (KDET)

We tend to associate Henry Ford with the auto industry but the man sought to move aviation into the mainstream in the same way that he transformed car travel with his Model T. The museum includes a range of aircraft from a Wright Flyer replica to Ford and Fokker tri-motor transports. To help mark National Aviation Day the museum is offering free tours of its Heroes of the Sky exhibit, a flight-themed story time and experiments in aerodynamics using everyday household materials.

Community Fly-In Friday: National Aviation Day

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Members of Microsoft Flight Simulator forums are planning virtual fly-ins to mark National Aviation Day. The group plans to fly to Dayton, Ohio, Orville Wright’s birthplace. Dayton’s other links with aviation include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The group plans to depart from Godman Army Airfield (KFTK) in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and includes a flight plan and suggested aircraft to fly in its announcement. 

The post What Are You Doing for National Aviation Day? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The national flag carrier for the Netherlands, KLM, has flown that flag now for 100 years, not only with a royal blessing, but also a number of other firsts and records to its credit.

KLM celebrates 100 years of flying under the same business name, “Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij voor Nederland en Koloniën,” or Royal Dutch Airlines for the Netherlands and Colonies. The Dutch airline launched flights in May 1920 with a leased De Havilland DH 16, then began again in April 1921 with its own Fokker F-IIs and F-IIIs.

The company set a record in 1934 with the Douglas DC-2—Fokker held the reassembly designation for Douglas aircraft based on the friendship between Tony Fokker and Donald Douglas, so the tie with the Netherlands for Douglas was strong. The airline’s flagship DC-2 Uiver (which means “stork” in Dutch) joined the MacRobertson Air Race, a contest flight between London, England, and Melbourne, Australia, in October 1934, and it took first place in the restricted category—those aircraft carrying passengers and cargo—and second overall. This win was particularly sweet, as Uiver had become lost in a thunderstorm off the coast, and landed on a muddy racecourse near Albury, NSW.

KLM now flies the latest Boeing, Embraer, and Airbus designs. The company is marking the anniversary with a series of celebrations, and in a uniquely Dutch manner: It has created a Delftware miniature house to commemorate the occasion. A video pitting KLM’s DC-2 days against those on board today’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner can be found here.

The post KLM Celebrates 100 Years of Flying—as KLM appeared first on FLYING Magazine.