The story of the Van Berkel WA begins with an emergency landing of a German Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 float plane in April 1918 near the Wadden Islands. It was confiscated by the Dutch government. Van Berkel Patent, known for precision scales and meat slicers, was willing to set up an aircraft construction department, specifically for this aircraft, in order to supply seaplanes for the Naval Aviation Service (MLD). It became the Van berkel WA. The first flight took place in September 1919. The WA remained in service until 1933. The biplane float plane was first used as a fighter but later used as a scout, both in the Netherlands and in the Dutch East Indies. The MLD largely deployed the WA in the Dutch East Indies in order to increase the flight services in the Indian archipelago.
The first aircraft were still equipped with the neutrality orange roundel and later they were provided with the tricolor rosette.
Here are 2 aircraft, the W3 and the W17, used in the Dutch East Indies.
