Anthony
Fokker was one of early aviation pioneers, with his first
aircraft, the Spin, flying in 1910. The success of his first
three designs prompted him to found Fokker Aviatik GmbH in
1912.
Fokker Flugzeug-Werke built fighter
aircraft for Germany during World War I, dominating this type of
aircraft with the Fokker E.III Eindekker, the Dr.1 Triplane and the
D.VII, arguably the best fighter of the war and the only aircraft
mentioned in the Treaty of Versailles.
After World War I, Anthony Fokker returned to the
Netherlands and focused on commercial aircraft. Fokker
produced some of the best European commercial aircraft in the 1920s
starting with the F.II of 1920. The most famous Fokker
aircraft between the wars was the F.VII Trimotor of 1928.
Anthony Fokker developed a profitable American
branch of his Dutch firm in 1924 which he sold to General Motors a
few months before the stock market crash in 1929.
After World War II, Fokker started over again with
the F-27 which pioneered the short-range turboprop airliner concept
in 1955.
The worldwide airline crises of the 1990s and
fierce competition put Fokker out of business in 1996. Four
Fokker subsidiaries were purchased by Stork and renamed Stork
Aerospace in 1999.