Utente:Maxperot/Sandbox2
Anton Herman Gerard Fokker (Kediri Giava Orientale allora Indie Olandesi oggi 
Indonesia, 6 Aprile 1890 – New York 
Stati Uniti, 23 Dicembre 1939) è stato un pioniere dell'aviazione olandese naturalizzato americano.
Fondatore dell'omonima azienda costruttrice di aerei, progettista e pilota aeronautico, a soli 20 anni costruì il suo primo aereo. Realizzò alcuni tra i migliori aerei civili e militari dell'epoca, tra i quali il triplano del leggendario Barone Rosso. Morì causa meningite batterica a 49 anni.
Biografia
Antony Fokker nasce a Kediri, Giava Orientale all'epoca Indie Olandesi oggi Indonesia, figlio di Herman Fokker, un olandese proprietario di piantagioni di caffé.
Quando Antony ha 4 anni la famiglia fa ritorno in Olanda e si stabilisce nella città di Haarlem, dove lui e la sorella maggiore Toos ricevono un'educazione olandese.
Non è un ragazzo studioso, preferisce giocare con modellini di treni e locomotive a vapore, non completa la sua formazione scolastica superiore. Inventa un pneumatico a prova di perdita ma non si tratta di un'invenzione originale, era già stata brevettata.
Anton Fokker was born in 1890 in the Dutch colonies.
The family moved back to Holland for his education when he was 11, but he was not a very ardent student, and he only made it through his high school exams by means of a self invented crabbing-machine.
He went to Germany to train in a car manufacturing school but decided on the spot that he preferred a newly started course in aviation.
The one plane he and his class built was crashed by a pilot that couldn't fly and the course crashed with it. Instead of going back he built his own plane with money his father sent him.
In 1910 he flew it for the first time; in 1911 he was giving demonstrations and joy-rides in it to make a living. In 1912 he established a small aircraft factory at Johannisthal near Berlin. He became an aeroplane manufacturer and show pilot, constantly worried by financial difficulties.
World War I broke out and Fokker came into his own. Fokker planes became loved and feared. During the war he introduced the gear system that made it possible to fire a machine gun through the propeller arc without hitting the blades; the propeller itself, by means of levers and gears, operated the gun at properly timed intervals.
After the war the Dutch government still hesitated to buy aircraft from Fokker, so he sold the salvaged (German) surplus war production to Russia. His first factory opened in Amsterdam in the hangars of the ELTA exibition of 1919. A second main Fokker factory opened in America and Fokker became the largest civil aircraft manufacturer of the twenties.
In the early 1920s Fokker sold an increasing number of planes to the U.S. military, and in 1922 he established the Atlantic Aircraft Corp. in New Jersey. He also maintained a succesfull large aircraft factory in The Netherlands. The first nonstop flight across the United States was made in the Fokker T-2 transport. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole (May 9, 1926) in one of Fokker's trimotor planes.
During the 1920s and the 1930s Fokker concentrated on the design and development of commercial aircraft that were widely used in the fledgling U.S. commercial aviation industry.
The all-metal Douglas DC1 of 1933 meant an end to the Fokker supremacy. A last brilliant stroke was the beautiful twin-tailed G-1 fighter of 1936, nicknamed the Reaper.
Fokker died in America in 1939. The cause of his death were complications from sinus surgery and pneumococcus meningitis. He was cremated in the United States and his ashes were brought back to the Netherlands for burial.