The Spijker V.2, sometimes anglicized to Spyker V.2 or Spyker-Trompenburg V.2, was a low powered,

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

seat biplane designed and built for the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

government for pilot training towards the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. More than seventy were built.

Design

The Spijker V.2 was a conventionally laid out single engine

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

biplane. Its wings had constant chord and no sweep or stagger. It was a two bay biplane, with two pairs of parallel

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s on each side and two further pairs acting as a cabane between

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 aircraf ...

and the upper wing.Taylor, 2001, p.197

Ailerons An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

were fitted to both upper and lower wings.Flight 1919, pp.1156-1157 Over the fuselage was a semicircular cut out in the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 199 ...

of the upper wing to enhance the upward view from the rear seat. The

open cockpits were fitted with dual controls. The V.2 was powered by a Thulin A (

Le Rhône 9C The Le Rhône 9C is a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine produced in France by '' Société des Moteurs Le Rhône'' / Gnome et Rhône. Also known as the Le Rhône 80 hp in a reference to its nominal power rating, the engine was ...

)

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

,Warbird News, 2014 driving a two blade propeller and enclosed by a 360° or 270°

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

. Its fuselage was built with wooden longerons and T-sectioned cross pieces braced with wire. The conventional undercarriage was fixed, with mainwheels on a single axle supported at each end on V-form struts, cross braced. A tail skid completed the landing gear.

Operational history

Because of the war in which the Netherlands remained neutral the European public did not see the V.2 until one of the first post-war air shows, the Eerste Luchtverkeer Tentoonstelling (First Air Traffic Exhibition) held in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in August 1919. The V.2's ability to loop on a small engine was noted. Seventy-eight V.2s were built for the Dutch government.Noppen, 2007, p.62 Fifty-eight of these were for the Army Aviation Group (LVA), eighteen for the

Dutch Naval Aviation Service The Netherlands Naval Aviation Service ( nl, Marineluchtvaartdienst, shortened to MLD) is the naval aviation branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy. History World War I Although the MLD was formed in 1914, with the building of a seaplane bas ...

(MLD) and two for the

KNIL The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ( nl, Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger; KNIL, ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The ...

. There were a significant number of fatal losses in both the LVA and MLD but the V.2s were flown by both services until 1924, when the MLD replaced their V.2s with Fokker S.3s; nine of their V.2s went to the LVA.Wesselink, 1982, p.17

Specifications

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Spyker aircraft V02 1910s Dutch military trainer aircraft Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1917 Aircraft of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army