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1923 Fokker C.IVA
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Description
When Anthony Fokker designed the C.IV in 1923, he intended for the final product to be adapted for each customer’s needs. For the one fuselage, he designed several different types of wings to be matched to different engines on the market. Over the next two years, almost 200 C.IVs were produced and sold to countries around the world, including the United States, the USSR, Spain, and Norway.
The C.IVa in the museum’s collection has an unusual history. While…
When Anthony Fokker designed the C.IV in 1923, he intended for the final product to be adapted for each customer’s needs. For the one fuselage, he designed several different types of wings to be matched to different engines on the market. Over the next two years, almost 200 C.IVs were produced and sold to countries around the world, including the United States, the USSR, Spain, and Norway.
The C.IVa in the museum’s collection has an unusual history. While originally built as a two-cockpit military reconnaissance aircraft, it was converted into a passenger plane with the removal of the rear cockpit to make room for four wicker seats inside the fuselage. Then, throughout the 1920s, it was bought and sold multiple times by adventurers who planned to use it for various endurance flights.
None of these plans came to fruition until 1930 when Bob Wark and Eddie Brown adapted the Fokker to fly from Tacoma, Washington to Tokyo, Japan to win a $25,000 prize. Their primary change was replacing the wicker chairs with a 450 gallon fuel tank. Even with this addition, they planned multiple midair refuelings to cover the 5,400 mile distance.
On August 10, 1930, Wark and Brown took off from Tacoma, but encountered trouble less than 200 miles into the flight. A problem with the fuel lines forced them to land at a small airfield near Vancouver, B.C. While Wark was able to land safely, the aircraft had too much fuel to takeoff from the small field. He dumped a majority of the fuel and sent Brown by car to meet him at Ladner Field, which was only a few miles away.
Wark managed to safely take off but had more problems at Ladner Field. When trying to land, he overshot the runway, sheared the landing gear off the plane. Instead of repairing the plane there and trying to fly again, the wings were removed and the plane was then driven back to Washington State.
The plane was largely abandoned until the 1970s when Ken Cianchette, a founding trustee at the Owls Head Transportation Museum, discovered it and set about restoring it to flying condition. In 1992, with the restoration nearly complete, Cianchette donated the plane to the Museum and in 1999 made the first flight of the C.IVa in 69 years.
Year:
1923
Make / Manufacturer:
Fokker
Model:
C.IVa
Donated By:
Ken Cianchette