FOKKER D.21 " DUTCH & DANISH"

Description

The Fokker D.21 fighter was designed for the use by the Dutch East Indies but because of the political situation it saw also some fighting over Europe. The FD-332 prototype took off for the first time in March 1936 and possessed rather high performance. Despite of that, the Dutch military hesitated with their order and waited until Finland and Denmark began to negotiate about possible licence rights for these fighter planes. (Finland produced their licence D.21s with two different powerplants, both of them are in our range of plastic models under catalogue numbers SH48073 and SH48078) In total 36 were eventually built for the Dutch military and these machines were, along with the twin-engined Fokker G.1, the very best which could the Netherlands use for its defence. The Fokkers were usually outperformed by their German counterparts which were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf110 fighters, but the smaller and lighter Dutch planes possessed much higher manoeuvrability which brought them sometimes an advantage in the combat. However, despite their heroic performance, the few Fokkers were not able to avert the occupation of the Netherlands. The story of the Fokker fighter in Denmark was even more sad as the Danish machines were not able to succeed against the German onslaught at all, the Luftwaffe´s attack was so sudden and surprising that the Danish pilots failed to take their machines aloft. And yet, the Danish aircraft might have had the most heavy armament of all Fokker D.21 versions as the Denmark´s military had been testing 23mm Madsen cannons on their machines. (Scale : 1/48e)