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Fokker D.XXI

1938 WORLD WAR 2

History

The Fokker D. XXI was designed by Anthony Fokker in 1935 and first flew on March 27, 1936. The system was originally intended to fill the ranks of the Dutch East India Army Air Corps, but the start of World War II eventually pushed it into service with Finnish, Danish and Dutch air forces against Germany. In service, the D. XXI proved to be a reliable airframe with solid performance specifications, good maneuverability and relatively inexpensive manufacturing costs. At the time of its creation, it was a revolutionary advance for the Dutch, as many of its current aircraft still resemble the forgotten biplanes of the military aviation era.

About 200 examples of this type were eventually built in the Netherlands and licensed in Denmark and Finland.

The design of the D. XXI is traditional by mid-1930s standards. The pilot sits in an enclosed cockpit located roughly in the middle of the fuselage. Visibility from the glass-enclosed cockpit is adequate, and the frame is relatively heavy in all useful directions, although the pilot sits far enough forward to allow above-average rear visibility. The fuselage itself is streamlined from the fairing to the tail, made mostly of tubular steel, with most areas covered in fabric. The wings are made of wood and are placed in front of the cockpit floor as a low-wing aircraft.

The front is dominated by a Bristol Mercury radial piston engine driving a three-bladed propeller. The landing gear has a typical "tail" arrangement, with two splined main gears under each wing and a tail wheel at the tail.

The empennage is contoured with a recognizable "razor"-style upper rear fuselage assembly leading from the cockpit to the empennage. The tail itself is conventional, with a single vertical fin and associated horizontal plane.

The prominent cockpit antenna and external sun visor are unique contour features of the production design.

The armament initially consisted of 4 x 7.92mm FN Browning M36 machine guns, two mounted on the upper fairing, firing through rotating propeller blades, and two mounted on the wings (one per wing). On the Finnish-built aircraft, the machine guns were moved to the wings to pair with the two existing ones.

Another Finnish change (albeit unrelated to armament) is the use of skis as landing gear to make a better - and apparently Finnish - "snow friendly" aircraft.

The use of D. XXI began as early as 1936 and was first used in limited numbers during the Spanish Civil War amid the wrath of the Spanish Republic. By May 1940, the Dutch Air Force had dispatched D. XXI in time to counter the German invasion. With only 28 Fokker D. XXIs in service, the Dutch pilot of the Dutch Army Aviation Group braved a better opponent by fielding the mighty Messerschmitt BF 109 inline-engine single-seat monoplane. D. XXI held on to well-trained and confident invaders for just a week, although after five days the Netherlands finally surrendered to the Nazis with little help from the Allies.

May 10 was the plane's best day in combat due to their brief cooperation with the defending Dutch pilots, scoring an impressive 37 air kills in total - although it should be noted Yes, this is for the Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft. A total of 36 D. XXIs were provided by the Netherlands.

D. XXI licensed production in Finland from 1939 to 1944. The systems differed by the aforementioned machine gun assignments and the internal configuration to accommodate either a Bristol Pegasus or a Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp Junior 825 hp radial engine.

Finnish D. XXI performed surprisingly well against early forms of Soviet fighters in the Winter War (Soviet invasion of Finland) and formed seven squadrons of the Finnish Air Force (10th, 12th, 14th, 24th, 26th, 30th and 32nd) . In the following months, the D.XXI was quickly overtaken by better equipped and more powerful Soviet fighters. Still, several Finnish pilots were able to achieve "ace" status with these machines.

A total of 90 of these D.XXIs were produced in Finland and received notable deliveries of at least 7 more systems.

As another licensee for the aircraft, Denmark used the D. XXI against the Luftwaffe in March 1940. Denmark produced 15 new build systems and received at least 7 D.XXIs.

Various D.XXI models were inevitably proposed - mostly to accommodate different engines - although these never made it to production. Proposed variants include a "Project 150" with a Bristol Hercules engine, a "Project 151" with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and a "Project 152" with a Daimler-Benz DB airframe.

600H series engine.

Fokker D. XXI was also operating under the Luftwaffe flag when the captured system was brought back into service. The number of aircraft used by the Luftwaffe is unknown.