The Fokker D.XVI (sometimes written as Fokker D.16) was a

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

developed in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in the late 1920s.

Development

The Fokker D.XVI was a conventional,

single-bay A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

sesquiplane with staggered wings braced with V-struts. It featured an open cockpit and fixed undercarriage with a tailskid. The wings were made up of wood spars and ribs with a plywood covering, while the fuselage was of steel tube construction with a fabric covering. Power was provided by an

Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar The Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar is an aircraft engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. The Jaguar was a petrol-fuelled air-cooled 14-cylinder two-row radial engine design. The Jaguar III was first used in 1923, followed in 1925 by the Jaguar IV ...

radial engine fitted with a

Townend ring A Townend ring is a narrow-chord (aircraft), chord cowling ring fitted around the cylinders of an aircraft radial engine to reduce drag and improve cooling. It was patented in 1929, and found use on various aircraft of the 1930s and into the 1940s ...

Operational history

The Royal Netherlands Army ordered 14 aircraft, which differed from the prototype in having divided main undercarriage units in place of the prototype's cross-axle. Hungary purchased four aircraft with

Gnome et Rhône Gnome et Rhône was a major French aircraft engine manufacturer. Between 1914 and 1918 they produced 25,000 of their 9-cylinder Delta and Le Rhône 110 hp (81 kW) rotary designs, while another 75,000 were produced by various licensee ...

-built

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter is a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine that was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developme ...

engines in place of the

engines used on the Dutch machines. Evaluation aircraft were also provided to China, Italy, Roumania and the

Royal Netherlands East Indies Army The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (; KNIL, ; ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The KNIL's air arm was the Royal Netherl ...

. The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army machine was powered by a

Curtiss V-1570 The Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror was a V12 engine, V12 liquid-cooled aircraft engine. Representing a more powerful version of the Curtiss D-12, the engine entered production in 1926 in aviation, 1926 and flew in numerous aircraft.Gunston 1989, p. 46 ...

, which crashed in March 1931 at Schiphol. The D.XVI also won a competition organised by the government of Roumania to select a new fighter, but despite this, no orders were placed. One Dutch Army aircraft was given to Roumania. In lieu of the radial-engined D.XVI, Fokker manufactured the similar Fokker D.XVII powered with an inline engine. One example was fitted with a three-bladed propeller and a full-chord

NACA cowling The NACA cowling is a type of aerodynamic Aircraft fairing, fairing used to streamliner, streamline radial engines installed on airplanes. It was developed by Fred Weick of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1927. It was a ...

Operators

; * Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) - evaluation only ; *

Royal Hungarian Air Force The Hungarian Air Force (, ), is the air force branch of the Military of Hungary, Hungarian Defence Forces. The primary focus of the present Hungarian Air Force lies in defensive operations. The flying units operate are organised into a single ...

- two aircraft ; *

Regia Aeronautica The Royal Italian Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') (RAI) was the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Regio Esercito, Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was ...

- evaluation only ; *

Royal Netherlands Air Force The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF; , "Royal Air Force") is the military aviation branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It was created in 1953 to succeed its predecessor, the ''Luchtvaartafdeling'' () of the Dutch Army, which was founded ...

- evaluation only ; *

Royal Romanian Air Force The Air Force branch of the Royal Romanian forces in World War II was officially named the (ARR, ), though it is more commonly referred to in English histories as the (Royal Romanian Air Force, FARR), or simply (Romanian Air Force). It provided ...

- evaluation only

Specifications

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{Fokker aircraft 1920s Dutch fighter aircraft D 16 Sesquiplanes Aircraft first flown in 1929