Country of origin:

Germany

Description:

Single-seat fighter

Power Plant:

One 82 kw (110 hp) Oberursel UR.II nine-cylinder rotary air-cooled piston engine

Specifications:

Armament:

Two 7.92 mm (0.311 in) fixed forward-firing Spandau machine guns

History:

The Fokker D.VIII, initially known as the Fokker E.V, parasol fighter, was designed by Anthony H G Fokker and differed from most designs of the time in being a monoplane. At the time of its design the Fokkern D.VII biplane was already in service and was considered by pilots to be an excellent fighter. On 28 December 1917 Fokker was commissioned to begin work on a monoplane fighter prototype known as the V17 (werke/nr 2147), this being a cantilever mid-wing monoplane with a welded steel tube and fabric covered fuselage and a plywood-covered wing. This machine was entered in the First Fighter Competition on 17 January 1918 at Adlershof.

The Fokker E.V (factory designation V28) was completed in June 1918 and was the first operational fighter to have a fully-cantilevered plywood-covered wing. It was ordered into production, the preferred engine being the 119 kw (160 hp) Goebel Goe III rotary engine. However, when production commenced in May 1918 at Schwerin it had the 82 kw (110 hp) Oberursel UR.II rotary engine, which was a copy of the French Le Rhone, although it would appear some had the 119 kw (160 hp) UR.III engine. At this time orders for the D.VII fighter were reduced to make way for the Fokker E.V, which in June 1918 was entered in the Second Fighter Competition. During the competition it was fitted and tested with three engines, the Oberursel UR.II, UR.III and the Goebel Goe III.

The first five Fokker E.Vs were accepted on 3 July 1918, standing orders being for 335 aircraft. It would appear 139 examples of the E.V with the UR.II engine were delivered commencing with serials 100/18 (werke nr 2741) to 309/18 (werke nr 2950). However, the last 62 are known to have been D.VIIIs. Subsequent deliveries were 62 Fokker D.VIIIs serialled 500/18 to 564/18 (werke nr 3255 to 3319), and 26 D.VIIIs serialled 670/18 to 729/18 (werke nrs 2672 to 2731). It would thus seem that 289 Fokker E.V / D.VIII fighters were built and delivered to the German forces. It is known 80 Fokker E.V fighters were at the Front on 31 August 1918, and on 31 October that year some 85 D.VIIIs.

Further development of the design led to the 104 kw (140 hp) Oberursel eleven-cylinder rotary, 119 kw (160 hp) Goebel, and 119 kw (160 hp) Siemens-Halske engines being installed but these were merely prototypes and did not enter production.

The strength of the wing was demonstrated by Fokker on 23 August 1918 at the airfield of Jasta 19 when 24 men were photographed standing on the wing. However, the type was soon grounded after two wing failures and production stopped whilst investigations determined that incorrect placement of the flanges prior to machining and improper assembly accounted for the accidents. The wing was re-designed and subsequent production aircraft became known as the Fokker D.VIII. Production resumed in September 1918 but the war ended before many could be completed. Of the 80 examples accepted into service between 8 October and 11 November 1918 only a few reached the Front, and most of these were the Fokker E.V variant. It would appear the type was never exhaustively combat-tested, and only one confirmed combat victory was awarded to the type, this being on 17 August 1918 when Lt Emil Rolff was successful.

Historian Peter M Grosz in an article in the British magazine ‘Air Enthusiast’ stated “at the time of its introduction, the Fokker E.V was considered a superbly manoeuvrable, fast-climbing interceptor, but by the time it re-appeared as the Fokker D.VIII it had been eclipsed by more all-round fighters: the BMW-powered Fokker D.VII, and the Siemens-Halske Fokker D.III and D.IV. As a matter of fact, the Idflieg in the last two months of the war ordered 700 Fokker D.VII, 150 SSW D.IV, 100 Pfalz D XV and 30 Junkers D.1 fighters”.

At the end of the war Anthony Fokker smuggled a number of Fokker E.Vs into The Netherlands where they saw service for some years with the Dutch Army Air Service, later being fitted with the 108 kw (145 hp) UR.III engine. Some went to Poland where they saw combat in 1919 against Ukrainian forces, and others were taken to Britain, France, Italy, the USA and Japan.

The Fokker E.IV had a 119 kw (160 hp) two-row 14 cylinder Oberursel U.III rotary engine and was fitted with two LMG.08 machine guns. One aircraft, fitted with three machine guns, was specially built for Max Immelmann, but only 30 were completed in total.

One example of the Fokker E.V (140/18 – werke nr 2781) came to Australia after World War I. It is known that some ex-German aircraft were flown in Australia. The E.V, based at the time at Point Cook, VIC, was test flown in August 1918, and was noted in ‘The Herald’ newspaper on 31 August 1921 as giving a flying display at Flemington on that day. However, the aircraft has not survived and it is assumed it was lost when a number of German aircraft from World War I were destroyed in a fire.

No example of the D.VIII is known to exist but a couple of non-flying replicas have been completed, one in the United States, and another joining the collection of World War I aircraft at Omaka, Blenheim, in New Zealand. During the 2011 Classic Fighters Air Show this aircraft was burnt as part of the display.

In South Australia Mr Langdon Badger built a replica of the Fokker D.VIII, this aircraft being fitted with an original Oberursel rotary engine from a World War I Fokker D.VIII. Only 11 examples of the Oberursel engine are known to have survived, but replicas have been built to power replica World War I aircraft. One flying example was built in the United Kingdom but was destroyed in an accident in 1981.

In 2009 a further D.VIII replica was imported to Omaka, this being a reproduction built in the United States by Paul Musso which had a 119 kw (160 hp) Rotec R.3600 radial engine installed, this aircraft on arrival being refurbished for use at aviation events.

A further three were built in Europe by Aichim Engels (c/ns 001, 002, 003) and shipped to New Zealand in 2007 for completion. Registrations allotted to these aircraft when completed at Masterton were ZK-SBT, ZK-FES and ZK-FEV.

A replica imported from Austria and completed at Caboolture, QLD, based with the The Australian Vintage Aviation Society (TAVAS) collection, became VH-EIV (c/n 001), being first shown at the Australian International Air Show at Avalon, VIC in 2015. This aircraft was fitted with a Gnome ET Rhone engine driving a Sedlbauer propeller.