Fokker F.II replica

The preliminary Free City of Danzig registration FD-15 is blocked, but construction number 1504 is clearly readable on the front fuselage of this airliner of the Danziger Luftreederei. The front fuselage is painted yellow and black. It does not yet carry the silver crosses of Danzig (Gdansk) on the rudder. To Dz-4 in 1921. While the Fokker-Grulich F.II version was built by Deutsche Luft-Reederei, 1504 is a Fokker c/n. Presumably due to a miscommunication it was issued to an F.III too, H-NABH. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

In 1994, the Aviodrome took the initiave for this replica of the Fokker F.II. Around 1996, the fuselage was ready and given the H-NABC markings. The replica includes an original Mercedes engine, the same type the original HNABC had in 1920. The fuselage was built and financed by Fokker (personnel) and one could perhaps argue whether that makes this a replica or original Fokker F.II. The last known F.II c/n was 1596 and there is no information about c/n 1597. So this aircraft got c/n 1598.

The prototype of the Fokker F.II, German c/n 4056, Dutch c/n 1500. From 1920 it was used as a research aircraft by the Netherlands civil aviation authority, RSL, without a registration - they could get away with that! Only in 1931 it was registered PH-RSL. Registration cancelled in 1936. Aircraft was bought back by Fokker and painted as early KLM machine H-NABC. Photo taken at airshow at Schiphol in 1938. Aircraft destined for prospective aviation museum but lost during the war. The real H-NABC (c/n 4057) became O-BAIC / OO-AIC with Sabena. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

Entry number 1 in the Netherlands register, and one of the first two planes owned by KLM. Aircraft built at Schwerin in Germany, formerly D-57. Soon refitted with a Siddeley Puma engine, H-NABC is seen here over the western outskirts of Amsterdam. The diagonal canal is Kostverlorenvaart and the lone ribbon bending northwest along the tramway to Zandvoort is Admiraal de Ruijterweg. The uncompleted block on Baarsjesweg below the landing gear dates the photo from the second half of the 1920s. Aircraft to Sabena in 1927 as O-BAIC. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

KLM's first own aircraft were F.IIs H-NABC and H-NABD. They were also the first planes in the Dutch register, both inscribed on 13 September 1920. Photo thought to have been taken at Croydon in 1920. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

The F.II first flew in October 1919 and was the first of a long series of commercial aircraft from the Fokker Aircraft Company and was the first Dutch type operated by the fledgling KLM. This exact replica is on display inside the Aviodrome museum at Lelystad.

The F.II was Fokker's first airliner, still designed at the German factory in 1919. The cabin seated four passengers; another person could sit next to the pilot in his open cockpit.