Fokker V.8 was a five-winged aircraft built by Fokker for the ''

Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Force)—known before October 1916 as (Flyer Troops)—was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-language sources it is usually referred to as the Imperial German Air Service, alth ...

'' during World War I. After the initial success of the Fokker Dr.I

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 m ...

, Anthony Fokker proposed a quintuplane, reasoning that if three wings were good, five would be even better. Reinhold Platz, chief engineer for Fokker, was at first shocked by the idea: further thought only strengthened this reaction. Nevertheless, the aircraft was built. Using some parts of the V.6, Platz designed a machine with three wings at the extreme front of the aircraft and a pair of wings midway along the fuselage, the mid-fuselage biplane wings placed where their leading edges were virtually even with the aft end of the cockpit coaming. Balanced control surfaces were fitted to the upper wings, those at the front acting as conventional

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 ...

and those in the rear working with the

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

. The pilot was seated just ahead of the biplane wings. Like the V.6, it was powered by a 120 hp (90 kW) water-cooled Mercedes engine. Fokker, who was his own test pilot, made two brief flights in October 1917, after which it was abandoned. The Fokker V.8 was powered by a 119 kW (160 hp) Mercedes engine. Platz regarded the aircraft as such a monstrosity that later on he would only speak of it reluctantly, and disliked its design being attributed to him.Weyl 1965 p. 253

References

Bibliography

*Peter M. Bowers and Ernest R. McDowell, "Triplanes," Motorbooks Ltd, Osceola WI, 1993, , pages 106-107 *Weyl, A.J. ''Fokker: The Creative Years''. London: Putnam, 1965. {{Fokker aircraft 1910s German experimental aircraft V.08 Tandem-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Multiplane aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1917