Fokker T.VIII

The Fokker T.VIII is a twin-engined torpedo bomber and aerial reconnaissance floatplane designed and manufactured by the Dutch aviation company Fokker in the late 1930s as the successor to the Fokker T.IV. It answered a 1937 Royal Netherlands Navy requirement for a floatplane for coastal defence that could carry a single torpedo internally, with a crew of three, at least 175 mph and long endurance for North Sea reconnaissance. It was a mid-wing twin-engined monoplane with a three-part fuselage of oval cross-section, a light alloy nose housing the observer behind large plexiglass windows, floats of duralumin and a wing hold for up to 1,330 lb of torpedoes or bombs behind hydraulically operated doors. The first flew in 1938, five were ordered that year and a further 26 followed, and eleven entered service with the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service before the war disrupted plans to replace the T.IV in the Dutch East Indies. Finland ordered an improved land-capable T.VIII-L, and the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe operated small numbers of the type.