90 años de Fokker

Papendrecht, 21 July 2009 --[ASDWire]-- Tomorrow it will be exactly 90 years since aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker started the ‘Nederlandsche Vliegtuigenfabriek’ (Dutch aircraft factory) in Amsterdam, with the main aim of building and selling aircraft. At that time Fokker was one of the first to see the opportunities of commercial aviation, and the revolution that this new form of transport would bring about. Many of the legendary flights in aviation history were made with Fokker aircraft, including the 55-day flight in 1924 to the Dutch East Indies and later the flight over the North Pole.

Together with the Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory NLR and the Dutch airline KLM, Fokker was involved right from the start in the successful Dutch aviation industry, which now employs 15,000 people. Specialists and skilled employees within Fokker still collaborate closely with universities, knowledge centers, customers and suppliers in- and outside the Netherlands. All of which means that the Fokker name is inseparably linked around the world with aviation, aircraft building, professionalism, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Now, ninety years later, the knowledge of building complete aircraft together with innovative skills and entrepreneurship still form the driving force behind the ‘Fokker group’. With 3700 employees and as part of the Stork group, the Fokker companies hold a prominent position in the aviation and aerospace industry, not as a builder of complete aircraft but as a leading player in the market for electrical systems, aerostructures, aircraft maintenance and services. With a balanced portfolio of programs and innovative technologies used by virtually all major customers in the aircraft manufacturing industry, as well as by many operators of Fokker aircraft and other platforms.

The present Fokker fleet consists of 800 aircraft worldwide, most of them Fokker 50, 70 and 100 types. These are safe, modern and economical aircraft which are maintained and kept up-to-date by the Fokker companies in the Netherlands, USA and Asia.

State-of-the-art aircraft such as the Airbus A380, Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF and the new Bombardier C series are equipped with complex electrical wiring systems from Fokker Elmo, which has locations in the Netherlands, Turkey, USA and China. The fuselage panels, wing sections, control surfaces and tail of the Airbus A380, Boeing 747-8, JSF and the latest Gulfstream G650 business jet, respectively, are made by the Aerostructures division, which is renowned for the development of new materials such as Glare and thermoplastic composites.

All this is due partly to the strategic vision of Anthony Fokker in 1919. He will be commemorated tomorrow, 21 July, by four historic Fokker S11 aircraft owned by the ‘Fokker Four’ foundation which will fly over the Netherlands, of course taking in the Dutch locations of the Fokker companies in Hoogeveen, Helmond, Woensdrecht, Papendrecht, Nieuw Vennep and Schiphol.