The Fokker T.II or T.2 (Not to be confused with the

Fokker T-2 The Fokker F.IV was an airliner designed in the Netherlands in the early 1920s, with only two ever made, both for the United States Army Air Service (designated T-2). Design and development The Fokker F.IV was constructed in typical Fokker styl ...

) was a single engine

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

designed in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the early 1920s as a torpedo bomber. Three were bought by the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

who tested them against other aircraft from the US and the UK. The T.IIs did not win further production orders but remained in service for several years.

Design and development

Fokker's T-designation included both

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

s and torpedo bombers; the T.II was the first of this series, as the T.I was an unbuilt project. Three were ordered by the

early in 1921 and completed towards the end of that year. Air power enthusiast General Billy Mitchell visited the Fokker works at Veere in early 1922. General

Clayton Bissell Major General Clayton Lawrence Bissell (July 29, 1893 – December 24, 1972) was an air officer in the United States Army and United States Army Air Forces during World War I and World War II. World War I service Bissell graduated from Valpara ...

, traveling with him, was encouraged by Fokker to fly the T.II. He reported it unresponsive to the controls; Fokker responded by having about a meter of the rear fuselage cut out and the structure re-welded, which cured the problem. The three T.IIs were delivered to the US later in 1922, where they were given the designation FT-1 (Fokker torpedo). The T.II was a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

low wing monoplane with straight tapered, square tipped wings. Overhung ailerons were used. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

was flat topped and sided and deep from tail to nose, where a 400 hp (300 kW)

Liberty 12A The Liberty L-12 is an American water-cooled 45° V-12 aircraft engine displacing and making designed for a high power-to-weight ratio and ease of mass production. It saw wide use in aero applications, and, once marinized, in marine use both i ...

water-cooled

V-12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fir ...

drove a two blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. The two crew sat in tandem, separate, open round

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

s over the wing. The

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

was mounted on top of the fuselage; together, it and the

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s were, like the wings, straight tapered in plan and square tipped. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

and

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

were quite short but the latter extended to the deep keel. The T.II's twin float undercarriage was about 70% of the aircraft's length, projecting well forward of the nose. The floats were mounted on the fuselage by N-struts, two pairs, with diagonal transverse bracing between them, on each float. There were no transverse interfloat struts, as required by the torpedo dropping role. The T.II's defensive armament was a single machine gun in the rear cockpit. Its offensive

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

was mounted externally on the fuselage between the floats.

Operational history

The US Navy conducted comparative tests of several types at their

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...

base. The competitors in addition to the Fokker were the US

Curtiss CT-1 The Curtiss CT-1 model 24, a twin engine torpedo bomber mounted on floats, was first flown in 1921. Development The US Navy was looking for a new torpedo bomber following a demonstration of sinking a battleship with an aircraft. A specification ...

, Douglas DT-1,

Stout ST-1 The Stout ST was a twin-engine torpedo bomber built for the US Navy. It pioneered the American use of metal construction and the cantilever "thick wing" design concepts of German aeronautical engineer Hugo Junkers, themselves pioneered in the seco ...

and the UK

Blackburn Swift F The Blackburn Dart was a carrier-based torpedo bomber biplane designed and manufactured by the British aviation company Blackburn Aircraft. It was the standard single-seat torpedo bomber operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) between 1923 and 1933 ...

. The Douglas machine won the production order and the Fokkers went into service at the Naval Air Station,

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

, remaining there until about 1926.

Variants

;T.II: Company designation of the torpedo bomber evaluated by the US Navy as the Fokker FT ;FT-1: The US Navy's designation for the T.II as delivered. ;FT-2: The third aircraft modified by the US Navy.

Operators

; *

Specifications

References

{{USN torpedo aircraft Floatplanes T.II 1920s Dutch military aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1921