VAN A. SWINDELLE COLLECTION
No. 10216. Fokker D.XVI (275) Netherlands Army Air Service
Aeroplane Photo Supply (APS) Photo No. 873 via Michael Brannin & Craig Simpson

Fokker D.XVI

11/30/2010. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Designed to meet a Netherlands Army Air Service requirement for a successor to the WW I-vintage D.VII, the D.XVI single-seat unequal-span biplane was powered by a 460 hp Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar fourteen-cylinder air-cooled radial and flew for the first time in 1929. Possessing a fabric covered, welded, steel-tube fuselage and ply-and-fabric covered wooden wings, it was armed with two synchronized 0.312 in (7.92 mm) machine guns.

The D.XVI was ordered by the NethAAS, fourteen aircraft being delivered to that service, these having split-axle landing gears rather than the cross-axle type of the prototype. One D.XVI was subsequently re-engined with a Bristol Mercury radial for aerobatic display purposes.

A single example was supplied to China, and four powered by the Gnome & Rhône Jupiter were delivered to Hungary. A further D.XVI was built with a Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled engine to meet a KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger, Royal Netherlands-Indies Army) requirement, although no production order was placed for this version."


Created November 30, 2010