Fokker Aircraft and GM
Written by Bill Bowman
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker ("The Flying Dutchman"). The company operated under several different names, starting out as Fokker Aeroplane in 1912 in Germany before moving to the Netherlands in 1919. It dominated the civil aviation market in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1923, Anthony Fokker moved to the United States, where he established an American branch of his company, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation in New Jersey. In 1927, the organization of the American Fokker company was restructured with new shareholders and new capital and the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America took over the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation. At the end of that year, Western Air Express, the first F-10 customer, gained a majority interest in the Fokker organization. The president of Western Air Express, Harris Hanshue, also became president of Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America and Anthony Fokker was appointed chief engineer.
In May 1929, the General Motors Corporation acquired a 41% stake in Fokker Aircraft Corporation by providing much-needed additional capital, a few months before the stock market crash. Hanshue remained president and the Eddie Rickenbacker (famous World War I pilot) was appointed sales director. Both the Fokker Aircraft Corporation and Atlantic Aircraft Corporation became parts of the General Aviation Corporation which, later renamed the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (GAMC), was also part of General Motors. The aircraft produced however were still called Fokkers, including in advertisements. Anthony Fokker became director of engineering at the General Aviation Corporation.
Operations were ended in 1931 because of the Depression and a much-publicized March, 1931 crash of an Fokker F-10, in which famed University of Notre Dame football coach, Knute Rockne, and seven others were killed. On July 10, 1931, following a decisive meeting, Anthony Fokker departed the company with five years' salary. The General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (GAMC) acquired the right to use the name "Fokker" for trading purposes for a period of some years.
In 1935, North Americn Aviation (NAA) reorganized and absorbed all the assets of GAMC. On December 23, 1939, Anthony Fokker died in New York Cityand and General Motors sold all of its shares in NAA in June 1948.
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