Frederick (Frits) Koolhoven (11 January 1886 – 1 July 1946) was an aircraft designer in Britain and his native Netherlands. Koolhoven was born in

Bloemendaal Bloemendaal () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Bloemendaal is, together with Wassenaar, the wealthiest place in the Netherlands. In October 2015, after persistent problems with the local governa ...

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 ...

. After training as an engineer in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far fro ...

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, he worked from 1907 as a mechanical engineer for

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the R ...

in Antwerp, and also drove in races and rallies for them. He became interested in aviation. In 1910 he acquired his own Hanriot aircraft, and was involved in the construction of the first Dutch plane the "Heidevogel" He designed many aircraft, initially in England from 1912 for British Deperdussin, then from 1914 for

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer. History Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth & Company e ...

, then from 1917 as chief designer for the British Aerial Transport Company alongside the Dutch chief draughtsman Robert B.C. Noorduyn. He returned to the Netherlands, but there the market was dominated by

Fokker Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

, so he returned to his old job as an automobile engineer for the Spyker automobile factory. In 1921, a group of businessmen founded the Nationale Vliegtuig Industrie (N.V.I. - "National Aircraft Industry", Inc.), and hired him as their chief designer. The company lasted only four years. As with BAT, N.V.I. turned out many technically advanced designs, which attracted attention from all over the world but virtually no orders. At the demise of N.V.I. Koolhoven convinced several shareholders that the company would still have been viable if he had had complete control of the operations. So when N.V.I. was dissolved, its assets were taken over by a new company: ''N.V. Koolhoven vliegtuigen'' ("Koolhoven aircraft, Incorporated"). The company,

Koolhoven N.V. Koolhoven was an aircraft manufacturer based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. From its conception in 1926 to its destruction in the Blitzkrieg in May 1940, the company remained the second major Dutch aircraft manufacturer (after Fokker). Although ...

, became the second aircraft manufacturing company in the Netherlands after Fokker, but the factory at

Waalhaven Waalhaven Airport in 1932, with the Graf Zeppelin in the background. The Waalhaven is a harbour in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It used to be home to an airport, Vliegveld Waalhaven (Waalhaven Airport). It was the second civilian airport in the ...

was destroyed by German bombing in the Blitzkrieg on 10 May 1940 at the outbreak of World War II. Frederick Koolhoven was convinced that the bombing had everything to do with his contribution as an aircraft designer in England during World War I. For unknown reasons (possibly to avoid persecution for his work in the UK during World War I, or for illegal aircraft sales to the Spanish Republic) he became a very inactive member of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB). After the war he was captured by the Dutch police because of this membership but he was released several days later. Frederick Koolhoven died of a stroke at Haarlem in 1946.

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Photo of ''Heidevogel'' 1910 (page down to "K")Film of Koolhoven flying ''Heidevogel'', 1911 at a show on Maatschappij voor Luchtvaart, SoesterbergKoolhoven Aircraft

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koolhoven, Frederick 1886 births 1946 deaths People from Bloemendaal Dutch expatriates in the United Kingdom Dutch aerospace engineers Dutch people of World War I

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