Fokker D XVII1932 |
FIGHTER | Virtual Aircraft Museum / Holland / Fokker |
Essentially a progressive development of the D XVI with a Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror engine, the D XVII embodied a number of aerodynamic refinements while retaining the basic structure of the earlier fighter and its armament of two 7.92mm M.36 machine guns. Ten production examples were ordered by the LVA, the 590hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel IIS 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine being selected as the standard power plant and deliveries commencing in October 1932. The ninth and tenth aircraft were respectively and temporarily powered by the 800hp Lorraine-Dietrich Petrel 12Hfrs and the 760hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs, both eventually reverting to standard Kestrel-engined configuration. The Conqueror-engined prototype was shipped to the Netherlands East Indies for KNIL evaluation, being shipped back to Holland in 1936 after a crash, and then being rebuilt and delivered to the LVA. Relegated to the fighter training role prior to World War II, the seven surviving D XVII fighters saw some limited operational use during the Wehrmacht invasion of the Netherlands.
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