Air Weapons

Medium Bomber (1938)

Fokker

T.V

The Fokker T.V was memorable for equipping the only Luchtvaartfdeling (LVA) bomber squadron at the time of the German invasion in May 1940. The T.V had been originally intended as a heavy battleplane or luchtkruiser but was eventually adopted exclusively as a bomber due to the obvious performance deficiencies an aircraft of its size would have incurred in that role. Unfortunately, deliveries were slow due to engine problems and it was considered at the moment to replace it with Do 215s. Once the Germans attacked, however, the few available T.Vs were hurried into service where they performed bombing missions quite successfully against German ground forces but numbers quickly grew thin due to forced landings and other incidents: by the fourth day only one example survived, it too being lost in a nearly suicidal mission against two road and rail bridges.

By the time the T.V was first flown on 16 October 1937, its role had changed from a heavy fighter to a medium bomber. Only a trickle were built with no variants of the basic design ever built.

Preceded by:

None

Succeeded by:

None

Datafile

DesignT.V
TypeMedium Bomber
Year1938
Crew5
Dimensions
Length16 m
Height5 m
Wing Span21 m
Wing Arean/a
Weight
Empty4,650 kg
Maximum7,650 kg
Wing Loading115.6 kg/m²
Performance
Speed417 km/h
Ceiling8,550 m
Range1,550 km
Powerplant
Engine2 x Pegasus XXVI
Bristol
690 kW
Thrust/Weight0.36
Armament
Guns2 x 20-mm
4 x 7.9-mm
Payload1,000 kg
Production
Built16
Total16