New Britain herald., 1930-07-03
Anthony Fokker, Received by Hoover On Monday, Runs Afoul of Law On Wednesday - Southern Cross Success Too Much for Him.

New 1ork, July W hen two de- partment of commerce inspectors pulled Anthony H. G. Fokker out of the air for -stunting low over Roosevelt field they brought to light the startling fact that one of the old es fliers in the world had neglected to provide himself with so much as an~ amateurs license.%
 Not that the round little Dutch pilot is old in years; he's only 40. But hes been flying for 19 of these 4o years and he's one of the few old timers who stayed in the skies instead of settling into some more secure jobs on the ground.
 He was telling about that first flight of his recently, the first flight of a venturesome youth in a patched together contraption in the days when flying was q joke, and not very funny joke, at that
 How did you go about it?" some one asked. Did you get someone to teach you?"
 Fokker, red fa&d, slightly bald. brusque of manner, grunted with ex- asperaton.
 Teach me-" heexploded Who was there in 1911 to teach anybody how to fly, huh?"
 Held License No. 5
 His license with the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the granddaddy of all air governing bod ies, was No. 3, which pretty well dates him as veteran of the clouds.
 He didn't stay merely a fier very long. however, for after every time he would take up one of those an- cient crates for creaking spin across the blue, procession of ghostly planes would float across the vivid and imaginative screen of his mind. He began to transfer these dreams 10 paper, and soon he knew that his real vocation was found He was a born designer.
 Since that time an estimated 50,- 000 planes have been built to his de- sign in this country and abroad, in peace and war, and all the time he kept on flying, testing his own ships, weighing them and finding them for ever wanting. lacking still something of his engineers ideal. And so he kept on building and kept on flying, and is keeping on at both today.
 Becomes Too Exuberant
 Yet when he got just a bit over enthusiastic on seeing his Southern Cross take off for the west yesterday and staged an aerial fandango so close to the dusty floor of Roosevelt field that inspectors waved him down and it was found that he didn't have a license.
 Well, here's how that came about, as near as you can tell from the facts that have leaked out of the box so far.
 After the war, during which Folk ker planes had played a. large part In the German air offensive after the allies had declined the Dutch de- signer's offer to supply them for uss against the Central powers, Fokker came to America and set himself up in business. It was hard sledding in the aviation world just then, as 1t generally has been with some ex- captions before and since, and prob ably the little flying Dutchman just had too much on his mind to think Of such matters as licenses.
 At any rate he apparently didn't get one, not then or later. Last year, so the story goes, the department of commerce began checking up on the men who had neglected to take the tests and in due time they came to Tony Fokker, who by that time had decided that America was going to be his permanent home and had therefore taken out first citizenship papers. He made appointments to take the various tests, physical, written, and actual flying, and he kept the first two appointments. But he forgot the third one, and just didn't get around, what with one thing and another to demonstrate at later date that he could really fly.
 Tentatively Fined $500
 Nobody else seemed to notice the omission and so the months passed by and might have run on into years If he hadn't shot mp with waggling wings and cavorted so hilariously over Roosevelt field in pleasure at the way the old Southern Cross started out on the last leg of her historic flight around the world
 But he did put on that aCrobatic tap dance in the air and so the man who was presented on Monday to President Hoover with the Southern Cross fliers and had luncheon at the White House was tentatively fined 70 $500 on Wednesday for getting too excited about that same Southern Cross crew and will at last probably be made to go through the official formality of proving that he is con- potent to pilot a plane.