Fokker C.XI-W

The Fokker C.XI-W was a reconnaissance seaplane designed to operate from warships and produced in the Netherlands in the mid-1930s, in answer to a Royal Netherlands Navy specification of 1935. Fokker's response was a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span braced by N-struts, tandem open cockpits for the pilot and observer and a twin-pontoon undercarriage, built with wooden wings covered in plywood and fabric and a fabric covered steel-tube fuselage. A Wright R-1820-F25 engine of 578 kW gave a maximum speed of 280 km/h. The prototype first flew on 20 July 1935 and, after successful catapult trials, a further 13 were ordered, equipping the cruisers HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS De Ruyter in European waters while most went to the Netherlands East Indies; the last survivor in Europe was evacuated to the UK in May 1940 and none seem to have survived past March 1942.