Fokker D.23 by Willem Vredeling

The Fokker D.23 (or D-XXIII) was a very unorthodox fighter that was built as a prototype only.

A very realistic mock-up was showed at the Paris Airshow of 1938 and the prototype made its first flight in May 1939. It was a very futuristic design with its nose wheel, twin tail boom layout and two engines in the fuselage; one in front and one at the rear end. In spite of this modern layout, flying was quite troublesome with serious overheating problems of the rear engine. The start of the war prevented any further work on the D.23 and in total it only made 11 flights with a total flying time of 3.38 hours. All flights were made by the well-known Fokker test pilot Gerben Sonderman. Although it was often reported as seriously damaged during the German air raids on Schiphol airport, it was only slightly damaged when captured by the Germans. It never flew again; instead the engines were dismantled and transported to Germany and the remaining airframe was finally scrapped.

Willem Vredeling describes in this book the fascinating story of the D.23 fighter from the early start until the final end. It is illustrated with 65 good quality photo’s; mostly from the Fokker collection and 10 drawings.

The book is strictly in the Dutch language.

Book details:

Title: Fokker D.23
Author: Willem Vredeling
Publisher: Geromy B.V., Gageldijk 83, 3602 AJ Maarssen – The Netherlands
ISBN no.: 978 90 78573 01 5
Book details: hardcover 24.5 x 16.5 cm; 112 pages
Price: EURO 24.95

With thanks to Frank Venus from Geromy B.V. for providing the review copy.

Nico Braas