Frederick Koolhoven 1886-1946
On May 10 1940, the invasion of The Netherlands, German bombers took off to cripple the Dutch airfields. At the airport Waalhaven of Rotterdam, the N.V. Koolhoven Aeroplanes was their first target. The factory was laid in ashes. Airplanes, drawings, documents, photographs, all was lost.
Today Frederick Koolhoven (pronounced: "Coalhoven") and his designs have almost been forgotten, but in its days, with 1200 employees and a well filled order-book, his factory was certainly as important as our 'national pride' Fokker.
Koolhoven's work was very innovative and visionary. In 1919, when
passenger planes were all converted military planes, he built the
B.A.T. F.K.26 'Commercial', the world's first aircraft specifically
designed for commercial aviation, or the world's
first airliner. His F.K.41 was one of the world's first high
winged sportscoupes. The F.K.55, a contra propelled fighter, was
unquestionably his most spectacular design.
Some of his designs became a great success, some were failures.
Yet, many times these failures possessed features that were far
ahead of their time. From Koolhoven's designs nearly 3000 airplanes
were built.
Only one original Koolhoven has survived, a B.A.T. F.K.23 'Bantam' which is restored by volunteers of the Koolhoven Aeroplanes Foundation.