The Fokker T.II or T.2 (Not to be confused with the Fokker T-2) was a single engine

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

designed 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 early 1920s as a

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the World War I, First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carryin ...

. Three were bought by the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

who tested them against other aircraft from the US and the UK. The T.IIs did not win further production orders but remained in service for several years.

Design and development

Fokker's T-designation included both

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s and

s; the T.II was the first of this series, as the T.I was an unbuilt project. Three were ordered by the

early in 1921 and completed towards the end of that year. Air power enthusiast General

Billy Mitchell William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who had a major role in the creation of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, ...

visited the Fokker works at

Veere Veere (; ) is a municipality with a population of 22,000 and a town with a population of 1,500 in the southwestern Netherlands, in the region of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. History The name ''Veere'' means "ferry": Wolfert Van Bors ...

in early 1922. General

Clayton Bissell Major General Clayton Lawrence Bissell (July 29, 1896 – December 24, 1972) was an air officer in the United States Army and United States Army Air Forces during World War I and World War II. World War I service Bissell graduated from Valpar ...

, traveling with him, was encouraged by Fokker to fly the T.II. He reported it unresponsive to the controls; Fokker responded by having about a meter of the rear fuselage cut out and the structure re-welded, which cured the problem. The three T.IIs were delivered to the US later in 1922, where they were given the designation FT-1 (Fokker torpedo). The T.II was a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

low wing monoplane with straight tapered, square tipped wings. Overhung ailerons were used. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

was flat topped and sided and deep from tail to nose, where a 400 hp (300 kW)

Liberty 12A The Liberty L-12 is an American water-cooled 45° V-12 engine, displacing and making , designed for a high power-to-weight ratio and ease of mass production. It was designed principally as an aircraft engine and saw wide use in aero applicatio ...

water-cooled

V-12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The f ...

drove a two blade

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

. The two crew sat in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

, separate, open round

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

s over the wing. The

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...

was mounted on top of the fuselage; together, it and the

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

s were, like the wings, straight tapered in plan and square tipped. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

and

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

were quite short but the latter extended to the deep keel. The T.II's twin float undercarriage was about 70% of the aircraft's length, projecting well forward of the nose. The floats were mounted on the fuselage by N-struts, two pairs, with diagonal transverse bracing between them, on each float. There were no transverse interfloat struts, as required by the torpedo dropping role. The T.II's defensive armament was a single machine gun in the rear cockpit. Its offensive

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

was mounted externally on the fuselage between the floats.

Operational history

The US Navy conducted comparative tests of several types at their

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast (Washington, D.C.), Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Marion Barry Avenue (formerly Good Hope Road) SE and the neighborhood contains commercial and gover ...

base. The competitors in addition to the Fokker were the US Curtiss CT-1,

Douglas DT The Douglas DT bomber was the Douglas Aircraft Company's first military contract, forging a link between the company and the United States Navy. Navy Contract No. 53305 of April 1, 1921, required only 18 pages to set out the specifications that r ...

-1,

Stout ST-1 The Stout ST was a twin-engine torpedo bomber built for the US Navy. It pioneered the American use of metal construction and the cantilever "thick wing" design concepts of German aeronautical engineer Hugo Junkers, themselves pioneered in the seco ...

and the UK Blackburn Swift F. The Douglas machine won the production order and the Fokkers went into service at the

Naval Air Station A Naval Air Station (NAS) is a military air base, and consists of a permanent land-based operations locations for the military aviation division of the relevant branch of a navy (Naval aviation). These bases are typically populated by squadron ...

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond, and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near whe ...

, remaining there until about 1926.

Variants

;T.II: Company designation of the torpedo bomber evaluated by the US Navy as the Fokker FT ;FT-1: The US Navy's designation for the T.II as delivered. ;FT-2: The third aircraft modified by the US Navy.

Operators

; *

Specifications

References

{{USN torpedo aircraft Floatplanes T.II 1920s Dutch military aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1921