Famous Inventor Dies

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 2

Famous Inventor Dies

ANTHONY FOKKER, AIRCRAFT DESIGNER NEW IrORK,l r ORK, Dec. 23. The death has occurred of Anlac*... Fokker, the aircraft designer, at the age of 49. Yesterday he was taken to hospital critically ill with pneumococcus meningitis. Born in Java, the son of a Dutch coffee plantation owner, Anthony Fokker, known through his inventive genius, rose in an incredibly short space of time to become one of the outstanding figures in aviation of the present generation. At an early age he showed great Interest in machines and prdttically none in educational studies. He was the bane of practically all his teachers, but in the quiet of his home gave full rein to his mechanical dreams Machines were the all-absorbing topic of his life. He even invented an “examination passer,” which was a revolving disc marked with the answers seen through a slit in his school desk.

When he was 18 he Invented a puncture-proof motor tyre, at 19 his first plane and at 22 he became a noted pilot. His real ambition was then

ealised—the manufacture of planes So successful were, the machines of his design that during the Great War the German Government, for a fabulous sum, secured his services for the supply of as many machines as he could turn out. His own factory in Holland built 4300 planes during the war; altogether about 7600 Fokkers were built. His value in the field of aviation was such that the English Government was reported to have offered him £2-mil-lion to transfer his services to Great Britain. After the war he smuggled six train loads of Fokker material into Holland despite the Allies’ order tc destroy every Fokker plane in Germany. . .. During the past 20 years Anthony; 'Fokker was one of the leading figures in commercial aviation in both Hol-i land and the United States, and in recent years he even turned his attention to the designing and building of yachts