Fokker D.XXI
| D.XXI | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Role | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Fokker |
| Designer | Erich Schatzki |
| First flight | 27 March 1936 |
| Retired | 1948 |
| Status | retired |
| Primary users |
Finnish Air Force Dutch Air Force Danish Air Force |
| Number built | 148 |
The Fokker D.XXI fighter was designed in 1935 for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL) . As such, it was designed as an inexpensive and small, but rugged aircraft, which had respectable performance for its time. Entering operational use in the early years of World War II, it provided yeoman service for both the Luchtvaartafdeling (Dutch Army Aviation Group) and the Finnish Air Force, and a few were built by the El Carmolí factory before it fell into rebel hands during the Spanish Civil War.
The Fokker D.XXI was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed spatted undercarriage. It was designed to meet the specifications drawn up by the Royal Netherlands Indies Army. Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, it had a steel tube fuselage covered in large part by fabric, with wooden cantilever wings. When flown for the first time on March 27, 1936, power was provided by a Bristol Mercury VI-S radial driving a three-blade two-pitch propeller. It was found to be easy to fly and possessed no serious vices. Unfortunately, shortly after the prototypes first flight, defense thinking in the Netherlands Indies underwent a radical change and no orders were placed for the fighter.
In 1937, the Dutch government voted funds for a limited expansion of the Army Aviation Group resulting on an order for 36 Fokker D.XXI fighters powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII. At this time the fighter had also attracted the attention of a number of foreign governments. The Finnish government ordered seven aircraft and acquired a manufacturing license. The Spanish government also acquired a manufacturing license for the D.XXI. Unfortunately, the plant building the fighter was overrun by Nationalist forces and no Spanish-built aircraft were completed. The Danish government ordered two D.XXI fighters and another manufacturing license. The Danish D.XXI fighters were powered by a 645 h.p. Bristol Mercury VI-S radial and carried a Madsen 20 mm cannon under each wing. Ten aircraft were completed by the Royal Army Aircraft Factory in Copenhagen prior to the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940.
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