Design and Development
The Fokker D.XXI was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed spatted undercarriage. Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, it had a steel tube fuselage covered in large part by fabric, with wooden cantiliver wings. Power was provided by a Bristol Mercury radial driving a three-blade two-pitch airscrew. When it entered service in 1938 it was a quantum leap forward for the Dutch Army Aviation Group, whose fighter force had until that time consisted of aging biplanes with open cockpits. The new Fokker proved to be an extremely sturdy aircraft capable of attaining a speed of 700 km/h in a dive.
Read more about this topic: Fokker D.XXI
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“Westerners inherit
A design for living
Deeper into matter—
Not without due patter
Of a great misgiving.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)