Fokker Monoplane, Summer, 1915

[Old Man]

If you opened this with thoughts of Fokker Scourge and Pour le Merites and Immelmann turns and such, something may be starting to strike you a bit strange, oddly out of proportion, about the aeroplane displayed, which indeed lacks a gun. For this is not an armed Eindekker, but a Fokker A.II, the long-span version of the Fokker M.5 in military service. Strictly speaking, it is not the sire but the uncle of the armed monoplanes, which were direct descendants of the short-span M.5, but without it, the armed Fokker monoplanes would never have appeared at all. For the long-span M.5 was the design which saved Herr Fokker's aviation concern from failure and impending bankruptcy.

By 1913, Fokker's trade-mark Spinne design was on its last legs. Its primitive means of control made it daily more unsuitable as a school machine, and less attractive to a sporting gentleman of means in the market for a flying machine of his own. An attempt to modernize it, and a new pseudo-Taube design, proved extremely poor flying machines. Herr Fokker knew he had to strike out in a new direction, one with an aura of modernity and a promise of prestigious achievement. He made a close study of products of Morane-Saulnier, a leading producer of racing aeroplanes. Fokker designed a machine which strongly reflected the lines of a Morane-Saulnier, but differed greatly in its construction. That design was the M.5 monoplane.

The fuselage of the M.5 replaced wood with welded steel tube, achieving similar strength with less weight. That saving went into making a stronger wing, and both its airfoil section, and the action of its warp-control, were improved over the original Morane patterns. Fokker projected the design to be built in two forms. One, with a longer wing span and so a lighter wing loading, would be apt for aerobatics, and safer for the gentleman pilot to fly; the other, with a shorter wing span, and so less drag and weight, would have a better turn of speed, and be suitable for use as a racer.

In the spring of 1914, Herr Fokker himself began to put on aerobatic displays flying his new long wing M.5 machine, and achieved a sensation in German aviation circles. In the audience for one display at the end of May were several leading lights of the General Staff, who were sufficiently impressed that Fokker was once again in the running for army aeroplane contracts. The M.5 itself, however, with its poor downward visibility and offering such cramped accommodation for two men, was not considered particularly suitable for observation use.

When the Great War commenced, Fokker received orders for many aeroplanes, which he did not have facilities to construct in a timely fashion. The German army wanted a version of Fokker's monoplane offering better visibility and accommodations for two men; this, the M.8, went into production off the drawing board, as the A.I. A few M.5s in civilian hands were impressed, or donated, into military service, and a handful were built under contract in 1914, receiving the designation A.II. In January of 1915, a more substantial contract for long span M.5s was let (for just how many is unclear, it was at least 15, and possibly as many as two dozen). These were being delivered by late February, with one of the first coming down intact shortly afterwards in French territory.

This build was inspired by this photograph:

It shows a machine from the latter portion of the 1915 contract, as can be discerned from the reduced angle of attack of the wing, relative to earlier examples. Late production machines typically had a smaller portion of the nose panelled in aluminum as well.

Feldfliegerabteilung 21 was attached to X Corps, part of 11th Army. This was shifted from Flanders to the east in April, 1915, to take part in the Gorlice offensive commenced in May. This produced a breakthrough, and an advance of a hundred miles into Galicia during the summer, retaking Lvov, and forcing the Russians to withdraw from Poland by September. In such a fluid situation, amid a country poorly served by roads and poorly mapped, fast aeroplanes would prove invaluable for liaison and scouting.

The serial of the machine in the photograph cannot be discerned, so the most I can say is that this model represents the FFA 21 example. Fokkers with Oberursel rotaries notoriously became badly oil stained, and the hot oil generally 'ate' the paint of serials (as well as the varnish on the fabric), and so I was careful to put on oil stains in a typical pattern down the lower longerons, then laid on decals for a conjectural A14/15 serial, and scraped them away where they overlapped onto the oil stains.

This is a conversion, employing two Eduard 1/72 scale Fokker E.III kits. Main points are: increasing wing span by two rib spaces, trimming chord and rake of tips, and putting cut-outs in the wing roots; shortening the fuselage slightly, extending the cockpit opening, altering the curve at the underside of the nose, and the shape of the cheek-pieces; reducing the span of the elevators by one rib space each. A seven cylinder motor must be swapped in for the nine cylinder one in the kits, and a taller cabane mast must be constructed.

I want to close by thanking Mr. Josef Scott, who was kind enough to give some advice and share some materials that were of tremendous help. I would not have got this even close to right otherwise. His 'Fokker Compendium', published by Windsock, is heartily recommended to anyone interested in details of the Fokker monoplanes, from the early unarmed sorts to the late fighter types.

Course of the build may be followed from here:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/644810/thread/1375539842/Fokker+A.II+%28conversion+from+Eduard+Fok.+E.III%29+---+Revived+W.I.P.+%285%29

[colin]

Lovely build and finish, with a history lesson thrown in.

[paganpete]

Lovely, and such amazing historical facts also!

Pete

[Viking]

Great write-up and superb model!

Cheers

John

[VG 33]

Very nice little aircraft.

Patrick

[Spitfire31]

Tnak you for a fascinating lecture and a beautiful model!

Kind regards,

Joachim

[russ c]

Cool ! very nice work there, looks great

[Nick Millman]

Really nice and one of those double take moments. I'm very taken with these early monoplanes as well as the early attempts to arm aeroplanes. I especially like your treatment of the metal panels and the fabric staining along the lower longerons on this model - well observed details that really bring it to life.

Nick

[Winenut]

I have to get out of my comfort zone and have a crack at one of the beautiful craft from this era

Inspiring!

Cheers

[nicE1]

That's really nice!

[Old Man]

Lovely build and finish, with a history lesson thrown in.

Thank you, Sir.

The early days of Herr Fokker and his machines present quite a story.

[Old Man]

Lovely, and such amazing historical facts also!

Pete

Thank you, Sir.

I like a model more if I can tell a good tale along with it.

[Old Man]

Great write-up and superb model!

Cheers

John

Thank you, Sir.

Usually accounts of this machine, presenting it as just a step in the making of the armed monoplanes, tend to focus of the question of how much and whether or not Fokker imitated the Morane-Saulnier product, not on the machine in its own right.

Very nice little aircraft.

Patrick

Glad you got a look at this, my friend.

Thank you.

[Old Man]

Tnak you for a fascinating lecture and a beautiful model!

Kind regards,

Joachim

Thank you, Sir.

Given the survival of the Fokker company into the modern era, and its great influence, this machine has importance quite independent of its armed successors, which is mostly overlooked when it is mentioned at all.

[Old Man]

Cool ! very nice work there, looks great

Thank you, Sir!

Glad you like it.

[Old Man]

Really nice and one of those double take moments. I'm very taken with these early monoplanes as well as the early attempts to arm aeroplanes. I especially like your treatment of the metal panels and the fabric staining along the lower longerons on this model - well observed details that really bring it to life.

Nick

Glad you got a look at it, Sir. Thank you very much. Someone suggested displaying this alongside a standard E.III, and I just might get around to doing one of those; it would highlight the great difference in proportions.

Fokker did an irregular 'engine turning' on the metal panels; it looks like someone was just handed a disc sander and told to get on with it and make sure everything got a lick. I just did a stipple mottle with several tones of silver paint; a 'ground' of silver tinted with deck tan for a base, and two tones of uncut silver paint, and some tinted with a bit of black. The paints were cut with Future, and then given a couple of coats of the stuff straight. It does for small aeas as a good bare metal, but for larger expanses --- I am a foil man.

On the stains, after I put on dilute black, I went over it with a buff wash, which toned it down and blended it in much better. A certain amount of this was internal; oil thrown off got in the slot the landing gear uprights rode in, and ran down the fuselage inside as well as out....

[Old Man]

I have to get out of my comfort zone and have a crack at one of the beautiful craft from this era

Inspiring!

Cheers

Thank you, Sir.

It is pretty much my favorite period. If you are looking for a 'starter subject', I would recommend a 'Vee Strut' Nieuport (an iconic type, easy strutting, and enough rigging to matter but not so much as to be seriously daunting), and if you work in 1/72, the Eduard N.17 kit (also sold as an N.21) is a very good one to start one. It is about as close to a 'shake and bake' as can be had for a Great War type, a little trimming where the struts go on the lower wing is about all it needs by way of tweaking.

[Old Man]

That's really nice!

Thank you, Sir!

Much appreciated.