Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association

History

The Fokker D.VIII was Germany's last fighter of World War I. Designed and built by Anthony Fokker of the Netherlands, it's maiden flight was in May, 1918 and approximately 290 examples were constructed in the closing days of the war. Although it was a sophisticated design, fast and highly maneuverable, it arrived too late in the war to show its full capabilities under combat conditions. An unusual design for the era and a precursor of things to come, it featured a single parasol mounted cantilever wing (monoplane) with no external bracing wires and a fuselage frame of steel tubing.

After the war a few of these aircraft entered service in Poland and Holland. It is reputed that Anthony Fokker smuggled a number of examples into his native Holland and they eventually entered service with the Netherland's Air Force

DVHAA's replica was built by Ron Mulvaney and was intended to be operable. However, ground tests showed control difficulties and no attempt was made to fly this aircraft. Mr. Mulvaney contributed it to our museum in 2006 and it was placed on permanent display in April, 2008.