S.A.M. #75: A "What If" Fighter

Meet alternate history fans' darling - an unorthodox Dutch warplane built too late to fight.

The Fokker D XXIII (or D.23) single-seat fighter was unusual in employing a fore-and-aft tandem engine arrangement, Slender booms carried the tailplane. The prototype powered by two 528hp Walter Sagitta I-SR engines made its first flight on 30 May 1939.

This was the last Fokker fighter. Its maximum speed was 520 km/h, fast, very fast in that time. The calculated speed with with Rolls-Royce or Daimler engines was even 615 km/h.

The D.23 had one major disadvantage: if the pilot had to leave the plane at any moment for a parachute jump, he would have been cut into pieces by the rear propeller. At that time, Fokker studied the possibilities of a ejection seat.

Versions of the D XXIII/D.23 were also proposed with Hispano- Suiza 12Xcrs, Junkers Jumo 210G (see below) and Rolls-Royce Kestrel XV engines, and although all-metal construction was intended, the prototype was fitted with a wooden wing of greater thickness/chord ratio in order to expedite the test programme.

Owing to various problems, including rear engine cooling, only four hours of flight testing had been completed when the invasion of the Netherlands brought the D XXIII development programme to a halt. The proposed armament comprised two 7.9mm and two 13.2mm FN-Browning machine guns.

The prototype was destroyed in 1940 when the German forces invaded the Netherlands.