The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-07

AmSterdam, oct. T.-tokker IS the name we used to see in the communt- cues in those black days when the Germans for time had the mastery of the air. To us all 1t was only a name, and a gloomy one. A. H. G. Fokker is the real full name as I find it written down in my notebook by the young man himself. The first impression I got from him in our long talk was that, though he made millions of marks from the Germans, he would give half of them to prove to the world that he was never anti Ally.
 ''I am a Hollander. you know" he explained. "I was making aero planes before the war broke out, and when the Germans asked me to make aeroplanes for them I could only agreed to do so. It was purely a financial matter. We are having an aeropIane exposition here in Am sterdam this month, and I find that all the English flying men who come here are good sportsmen. They don't hold any grudge against me for rnak- ing aeroplanes for the Germans but the Frenchmen, they will never for give me, I fear. My machine brought down too many Frenchmen, and they don't like my name.'
 tHow was it that your machines were better than the allied machines for a time?' I saked.
 Why, the Germans gave me carte blanche to spend money" he said '.I invented the system of shooting through the propeller, and that gave the Germans a tremendous advantage over the Allies until the Allies began to shoot through their propellors also. I found a way of shooting through the floor of the aeropIane car, and the surprise was deadly to the Allies until they followed suit I increased speeds from time to time and every chance in that direction gave the Germans a temporary su- periority. With my fast propeller shooting machines Imme1mann was able to work out his new system of close fighting. He discovered the principle that the deadliest and surest aeroplane fighting is at close range with a faster machine than your op- ponent's. It took the Allies a long time to solve Immelmann's system but they got 1t at last, and became as good as Immelmann himself at it."
 War Lost in the Air.
 'It seems to me that the Allies permitted Germany to do all the pioneering in air fighting They let Germany set the pace in all improve ments in the line for a time but Germany was whipped in the air in the summer of 1918. That was one big reason why the German army had to quit I had built $500 aeroplanes for the Germans to use in the spring drive, but the Allies had five to our enc. I think the Germans lost the war in the air. Every day the Aneri- cans were delivering hundreds of ma chimes, and we had reached the limit of production. The American sup ply was unlimited, and we knew it."
 Fokker had told me that he made a lot of money in the war. but, he added: 'I have lost a lot of it late 1y. One of my factories in Germany is now making pianos Another is making motor-boats and fiddles and things, and third factory, in which I made the machinery for shooting through propellers, has been closed. canot make any more aerop1anes there under the Peace Treaty ar rangem ents. Peace time Is no time to make money, with aeroplanes. The whole business has come to dead standsti11, and it will remain there, I fear until Government take it up and maintain it.
 You know there Is no limit to what can be done with aeroplanes, providing the money Is forthcoming have plans now for a 10000 h. D. aerop1ane. I have thrown away all my plans for stabi1izing aeropIanes. We have found that if you make them right they will stabilize them se1ves''
 "If the war had gone on for sev- eraI more years, how far would the aeroplanes have deve1oped?' I asked Fokker. His answer revealed what he assured me had been a great military secret.
 ssWe would have put the artillery out of commission. We would have made the big guns o1d-fashioned as spears" he exclaimed. ''It was all the fault of the army red tape in Berlin that it was not begun sooner 1t was like this. In 1916 the army authorities asked me if I could make a very cheap aeroplane, with a very cheap engine, capable of flying about for four hours, which could be steer ed through the air by wireless waves.
 They intended to load each one of these aerop1anes with huge bomb. and send them into the air under the control of one flying man, who would herd them through the sky by wire less like flock of sheep He would be able 10 steer them as he pleased, and send them down to earth in just exactly the spot he selected.
 '"rhe German idea was that it was a tremendous waste to send shells through the air by means of ex- p1osives. Their idea was to put all their explosives into shells and then move the shells to their destination by gasoline power. They had really lost faith in the use of big guns. The Big Bertha which fired shells seventy GvA miles on to Paris was probably