Koolhoven (aircraft manufacturer)

N.V. Koolhoven was an aircraft manufacturer based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. From its conception in 1926 to its destruction in the Blitzkrieg in May 1940, the company remained the Dutch second major aircraft manufacturer (after Fokker). Although many of its aircraft were as unsuccessful economically as they were brilliant from a design standpoint, the company managed to score several 'hits', amongst them the FK-58 single-seat monoplane fighter, the FK-50 twin-engine passenger transport and the FK-41, built in England under licence by Desoutter.

In 1920, aircraft designer Frederick 'Frits' Koolhoven returned from England to his native Netherlands. The postwar years had not been good to him: The British Aerial Transport Company for which he was chief designer went bankrupt and all other manufacturers were struggling for survival too hard to think of hiring. The Netherlands, Koolhoven hoped, would be better. But there he found that while the Netherlands new airline KLM was a willing taker for all the aircraft it could get, the market was almost completely dominated by Fokker. Out of other options Koolhoven returned to his old job and worked as an automobile engineer for the Spyker automobile factory.

In 1921, his luck began to change when a group of businessmen founded the N.V. Nationale Vliegtuig Industrie ("National Aircraft Industry, Incorporated"), and hired him as their chief designer. The time was still not yet ripe for a second Dutch aircraft manufacturer and, as with BAT, N.V.I. produced technically advanced designs that attracted attention from all over the world, but received virtually no orders. The company lasted only four years.

At the demise of N.V.I. Koolhoven had become sufficiently business-aware to convince several of the N.V.I. shareholders that the company would still be viable, if only he would have complete control of the operations. Enough of the shareholders agreed and even while N.V.I. was being dissolved, its assets were almost immediately taken over by a new company: N.V. Koolhoven vliegtuigen (Koolhoven aircraft, Inc.).

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