Fokker V . 1 The Fokker V . 1 was a small German sesquiplane experimental fighter prototype built in 1916 by the Fokker - Flugzeugwerke . It was the first Fokker aircraft purportedly designed by Reinhold Platz — the respective roles played by Fokker himself , Platz , and possibly others in the conceptual design of Fokker airplanes are a matter of dispute among historians — and was an early experiment in cantilever wing construction , eliminating the bracing wires typical of aircraft design at the time , something that had already been achieved with metal materials in Hugo Junkers ' own pioneering Junkers J 1 in 1915 . Design . The Fokker V . 1 principal innovation was its unbraced cantilever wings . These were built around a pair of wooden box - girders , the upper and lower members of which were built up from several thin strips of pine , with connecting webs of birch plywood . The entire wing was covered in plywood , an innovation probably suggested to Fokker by a Swedish aeronautical engineer , Villehad Forssman ; its smooth surface , thick airfoil and tapered planform gave it a remarkably modern appearance . The depth of spar needed for adequate strength necessitated a wing whose root thickness was around 20 % of the chord , in contrast to a typical value of around 6 % for aircraft of the period and 12 to 15 % for modern aircraft of comparable performance . The spars of the upper wing were parallel but those of the lower wing converged to meet at the wingtips . The intention of this was to provide a well for the fitting of a retractable undercarriage at a later date . Ailerons were fitted to the upper wing only and these were unusual in that the entire wing - tip was pivoted to provide a control surface . To further Platz ' s desire for an aerodynamically clean aircraft , all control actuators were buried within the wing , so that there were no drag - creating control horns . The upper wing was mounted on a pair of tubular steel tripods between the fuselage and mainspar and a pair of steel struts connected to the aft spar . There were no interplane struts . Since Platz was using a novel and thick aerofoil , much like the contemporary cantilever - winged Junkers J 1 all - metal monoplane pioneered nearly a year earlier , he was unsure about the correct incidence for the wing with respect to the fuselage . Lacking a wind tunnel , he therefore made it adjustable during flight . The fuselage structure was the usual Fokker wire - braced rectangular section box girder made from welded steel tubes . This was then enclosed within circular wooden formers bearing longitudinal stringers and covered with fabric . The tail surfaces were all - moving , without a fixed fin or horizontal stabiliser . The aircraft was powered by a 75 kW ( 100 hp ) Oberursel U . I rotary engine . In the case of the V . 1 the V did not stand for versuchs ( experimental ) , but for " verspannungslos " ( literally " without struts " ) , or cantilever . The aircraft was so small it was nicknamed " " Floh " " or flea , like a similarly small DFW - built prototype airframe of the era . Variants . It was Fokker ' s practice to develop rotary and inline engined variants of the company ' s designs . Accordingly , a second similar aircraft powered by a 120 hp ( 90 kW ) Mercedes D . II was constructed , the Fokker V . 2 . The aircraft differed principally in having an increased wing area to compensate for the increased weight of the engine and Albatros D . III - style open structure , fabric - covered conventional tail surfaces .