Fokker D-VII V14 Poland

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

The Fokker DVII was arguably the best fighter plane of World War I. It was designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke for the Luftwaffe. 3300 were produced during 1918 before the end of the war. The Fokker DVII was sturdy, maneuverable and fast with top speeds of 124 mph. It could out fly most of the allied fighters of its day. The aircraft design was a direct result of a competition for a new fighter involving the best of German fighter pilots getting a chance to fly and recommend the aircraft in the competition. Manfred Von Richtoven flew the predecessor called the V11and thought it was dangerous, directionally unstable. After the designer lengthened the fuselage by about 2 feet, added a triangular vertical fin in front of the rudder, Richtoven immediately recommended the aircraft and an initial order of 400 was received by Fokker. In combat the aircraft was difficult to shoot down, structurally sound and fairly easy to fly. It made a great impact on the air war and impressed the allies. After the war ended, Germany was forced to surrender the Fokker DVIIs to the allied air forces and consequently were used well into the 1930s all over the world. The US Army Signal Corps was ordered to deliver air mail during the 1920s and they used many Fokker DVIIs to accomplish this mission.