A question about Fokker G.1

Hi Mathieu,

Thanks for the information, very interesting. Did you get my e-mail I sent you some weeks ago?

Cheers

Cees

@ Cees,

As known for many years and writen in many books/magazines the G.1 Leegstra and Vos used for there escape to England had construction number 5567, this was a G.1 equipped with P & W Wasp engines! I have inspected the tailboom that is at the Militairy aviation museum, there is a number at this tailboom to. That is 5567!
That does not prove that this tailboom is from the aircraft that flew to England, perhaps another from another G.1 was fitted.

Best regards,

Mathieu

Looks like something halfway between a P-61 Black Widow and a P-38 Lightning!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Northrop_P-61_green_airborne.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-61_Black_Widow

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/021001-O-9999G-005.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_Lightning

And yes, I have just comitted “Wiki-wacking” upon you all… you may begin the rotten-tomato-throwing. :p

Archer,

Yes, it was indeed dumped and later scrapped or broken up at the Miles site. It is highly unlikely however that one of the tailbooms ended up in a Dutch museum. As you probably know there is one original tailboom which is at the Militair Luchtvaart Museum, Soesterberg. It has been identified as being from a G-1 fitted with Twin Wasp engines. So this rules out the Vos/Leegstra machine. Pity, but we really need a G-1 reconstruction over here. The G-1 project is taking forever. All we have at the moment is a full size model (but a good one).

The G-1 gave a good account of itself but never could prove it’s worth. On the other hand it was already obsolete in comparison with the Messerschmitt which was over 50 mph faster (at least). But, as they say it’s all up to the person flying it.

Cheers

Cees

Cees,
That was indeed the tailboom that I meant, but it looks like I got my G.1s mixed up!

You’re right in stating that the design was dated at the start of the war, but as far as speed goes, that doesn’t decide everything of course. MiG-21bis’ question on which is the better airplane could be answered in favour of the G.1 on that account as its slower speed would give it a smaller turn radius. But as you say the man behind the steering column is a big factor.

I’ll second the need for a good reconstruction, let’s wish Pim Pouw (see link above) a lot of good fortunes and spare time! 😀

Edited to add: That’s one brilliant piece of footage you posted Tillerman! Many thanks for that!

Maybe one day we will….

Find out how manouverable a G1 is…:D
http://www.fokker-g1.nl/

The G.1 that escaped was – according to most sources – cut up and scrapped but one tailboom ended up in a Dutch museum. Whether this still exists is another question.

As for the question ‘was the G.1 better than…’, that is practically impossible to answer. First you need to define your parameters, is faster better or slower? How important is the turning radius? Etcetera.

Personally I think it was a good multi-role design that could have evolved into a pretty decent early-war type on most fronts. Whether it would have been able to hold its own against the late-war types we’ll never know.

Archer,

Yes, it was indeed dumped and later scrapped or broken up at the Miles site. It is highly unlikely however that one of the tailbooms ended up in a Dutch museum. As you probably know there is one original tailboom which is at the Militair Luchtvaart Museum, Soesterberg. It has been identified as being from a G-1 fitted with Twin Wasp engines. So this rules out the Vos/Leegstra machine. Pity, but we really need a G-1 reconstruction over here. The G-1 project is taking forever. All we have at the moment is a full size model (but a good one).

The G-1 gave a good account of itself but never could prove it’s worth. On the other hand it was already obsolete in comparison with the Messerschmitt which was over 50 mph faster (at least). But, as they say it’s all up to the person flying it.

Cheers

Cees

The G.1 that escaped was – according to most sources – cut up and scrapped but one tailboom ended up in a Dutch museum. Whether this still exists is another question.

As for the question ‘was the G.1 better than…’, that is practically impossible to answer. First you need to define your parameters, is faster better or slower? How important is the turning radius? Etcetera.

Personally I think it was a good multi-role design that could have evolved into a pretty decent early-war type on most fronts. Whether it would have been able to hold its own against the late-war types we’ll never know.

Hi all,
A bit of a side track..but does anyone know what happened to the Fokker G1 that was at Reading airfield till the late 1940s?
An ex Dutch airforce machine that escaped from Holland during the early days of WW2, not sure of it’s ident.
Miles Aircraft Ltd had it for research into it’s construction according to some sources, though I have been told by an ex Miles man that they only wanted it for the Mecury engines. These ‘borrowed’ for the company’s Miles Master production, the remains just dumped out on the airfield.

Cheers, Chumpy.

The G-1 was a good multirol aircraft. It had to do to much. If it had designed with Hispano engines as it was intented to it might have been the better aircraft.

Herman

As I know, the prototype of G.1 was equiped with Hispano engines, but the engines is easy to be over-heated, so the Wasp and later the Mecury engines took its place

Fokker G.1, the best fighter in Dutch when the war broke out. Some one believe that G.1 is better than Bf110 in dog-fighting, is it true? Does anybody have some air record of G.1 between May 10 and 14 in 1940?
Thanks a lot!

The G-1 was a good multirol aircraft. It had to do to much. If it had designed with Hispano engines as it was intented to it might have been the better aircraft.

Herman

Here’s a unique piece of film footage of a G-1.

Tillerman.