The Fokker V.2 and V.3

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

were developed from the Fokker V.1, but utilized an 89 kW (120 hp) Mercedes liquid-cooled inline engine instead of the rotary. This is similar to the Fokker V.6 being tested as the Fokker V.5 was being developed. Like the V.1, the fuselage was circular in cross section, and the wings were covered with

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

. To match the center of pressure and

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...

with the heavier engines, these aircraft had their upper wing's outboard sections swept back. For many decades, the V.3 was thought to be a modification to the V.2 instead of a separate aircraft. The designation was known, and assigned in error to the first

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The triplane arrangement may ...

, which also had cantilever wings. That aircraft was, however, the V.4, not the V.3. A period photo in the book ''German Combat Planes'', authored by Ray Wagner and Heinz Nowarra and published in the United States in 1971, shows a "Fokker V.2" aircraft with a redesigned

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

strongly reminiscent of the

Albatros D.III The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...

in appearance, as a possible step in its experimental program. Historian Peter M. Bowers has speculated that the V.1-V.3 were in fact proof of concept aircraft as they were too under-powered for actual use as fighters.

Bibliography

* 1910s German fighter aircraft V.02 Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft {{aero-1910s-stub