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Introduction
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.
It's the Foundation's goal to assure Koolhoven's deserved place
in history. First priority in this is to gather as much remaining
material as possible. Thanks to institutional archives and gifts
from personal possessions, the Foundation has been able to form
the most comprehensive archive and collection on Koolhoven. - Still
it happens that material is thrown away, because people are just
not aware of its historical value. Making the Foundation known hopefully
prevents further loss of valuable material. - Interviews with
former employees or other people who can give information from their
own experience, are also appreciated sources.
Working at the files, sorting out all the information, takes a lot
of time. It is needed first to make the building of replicas possible.
Though the Foundation's files do contain drawings of some types,
there are no complete sets. Building the desired replicas depends
heavily on research.
Only one original Koolhoven has survived, a B.A.T.
F.K.23 'Bantam' which is restored by volunteers of the Koolhoven
Aeroplanes Foundation.
The Koolhoven Aeroplanes Foundation (Stichting Koolhoven Vliegtuigen)
is founded in 1989 by aviation enthusiast Jan den Das, aviation
historian Theo Wesselink and technical curator Harry van der Meer.
| © Koolhoven Aeroplanes
Foundation - -
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