South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-10-20
AEROPLANE MAKER.
GIVES INTERVIEW
A. H. 6. FOkker, Inventor of
of Famous Planes, Tells
OF Invention.
BY a special Correspondent.

bA Nilff III NbiNf~I Hiilttf-iA-
AMSTERDAM. oct 20. ~
FOkker Is the name we used 20 see I.
IN the communiques in those black !
days when the Germans for time
had the mastery Of the air. To Us all :
It was only a name. and a gloomy
one A RI. O.. Fokker is the real /
name as and IL written down i'm (,
my notebook by the young man
himself The first impression ! got
from him in our long talk was that. (
though ne made millions Of marks +
from the Germans. ne would give
half or them TO prove Ca The world /
shat he was never anti-ally.
II am a HOllander YOU know" he
explained II was making aeropianes
before the war broke out. and when
the Germans asked me 20 make
aeroplanes for them / could only
agree 10 do so il was purely "A Il
nancial matter. We are having an
aerOplane exposition here i'm Am
sterdam this month. and ] find that
all the English flying men who come
here are good sportsmen. They don't
hold any grudge against me for
making aeroplanes for the Ger
mans, but the Frenchmen. they will
never forgive me, I fear My ma
chine brought down too many
Frenchmen, and they don't like my
name
Spent Money Freely.
How was il that your machines
were better than the allied ma
chimes for a time2" I asked
Why, the Germans gave me carte
blanche 70 spend money" ne said
Z invented the system OF shooting
through the propeller. and that gave
the Germans a tremendous advan-
tage over the allies until the allies
began to shoot through their pro-
pellers also I found a was of shoot
ing through the floor of the aero
plane car, and the surprise was
deadly 10 the allies until they fol-
lowed suit. 7 increased speeds from
time TO time. and every change in
that direction gave the Germans
temporary superiority With my fast
propeller-shooting machines Immel-
mann was able TO work out his
new system of close fighting He dis
covered the principle that the dead
lest and surest aeroplane fighting
is at close range with faster ma
chine than your opponents. 10 took
the allies a long time 10 solve I'm
melmann's system but they got it
at last. and became as good as Inn
melmann himself at it,"
War Lost i'm the Air.
you know there is no limit 90
what can be done with aeroplanes.
providing the money is forthcoming
/ have plans now for a 20 600 n. D.
aeroplane. / have thrown away all
my plans for stabilizing aeroplanes.
We have found that if YOU make
them right they will stabilize lem
= selves"
If the war had gone on for sew
eral more years, how far would tho
aeroplanes have developed" 7 ask
81 Fokker. His answer revealed
what he assured me had been
great military secret.
We would have put the artillery
out Of comm PISTON. We would have
made the big guns as old-fashioned
as spears" ne exclaimed. "It was
all the fault OF the army red tape
In Berlin that il was not begun soon
er. 1t was like this. I'm 1916 the
army authorities asked me if J could
make a very cheap aeroplane. with
a very cheap engine. capable of fly
ing about four hours. which could
be steered through the air by wire
less waves. They intended TO load
each one Of these aeroplanes with a
huge bomb. and send them into the
air under the control Of one flying
man, who would herd them through
the sky by wireless like a flock of
sheep. He would be able TO steer
them as ne pleased. and send them
down TO eartn in Just exactly the
spot ne selected
Lost Faith in Guns.
The German idea was that il was
a tremendous waste 10 send shells
through the air by means of cxplo-
sives. Their idea was to put all their
explosives into shells and then move
the shells 10 their destination by
gasoline power. They had really lost
faith in the use Of big guns The
Big Bertha which fred shells IS
miles on 10 Paris was probably part
ly intended 20 delude the allies into
believing that the Germans were
developing their big guns instead of
preparing 10 discard Ineu, and IT
they had not gotten tansIed up in
their own red tape they would have
rendered the big guns useless before
the artistic came. I prepared the
plans they asked for. I found that
we could make use OF old engines
that We're not reliable for lighting
planes. All we asked of on engine
was that il should fy for about four
hours at the most. or course. each
one OF these aeropIares with its en-
CINE would be blown up when the
bomb exploded. The whole thing
was not much more expensive than
firing long-range shells. and il would
be far more sure and far more
deadly. My plans were accepted by
the anthcities. and then the war or
ice made it's great mistake. To de-
cided 20 make the aeroplanes itself
The war office bungIed along with
the manufacture OF the planes FOR
many months and when they had
finally turned out a few machines