Man builds own Fokker

[Adam]

A man has built a replica fokker monoplane powered by a lawnmower engine:



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297228/Meet-Fokker-WW1-replica-hand-built-powered-mower-engine.html

It's an good story but a terrible article as the writer seems to have his wars mixed up:

"The huge Maltese Crosses on the fuselage and wings initially left me feeling more uneasy.

Happily, Mr Stephens makes it clear there is nothing political about his love for the plane.

Should I have had any doubts about his denial, these are dispelled when he fails to recall the name of the German air force.

Not many Nazi apologists have trouble identifying the Luftwaffe."

I wonder how uneasy he'd feel if he went to Germany and saw that they're still using the dastardly 'Maltese Cross'!

[Michi]

I always dreamed about doing that with my old motorcycle engine once I will not ride it anymore...

I wonder how uneasy he'd feel if he went to Germany and saw that they're still using the dastardly 'Maltese Cross'!

Indeed...look at that tiny one on the Starfighter wing:

[Hammers]

What an ignoramous.

Is it, strictly speaking even a Maltese Cross?

[Plynkes]

It's generally called an Iron Cross, because the famous medal is that shape. I believe among cross enthusiasts the technical name for that shape is a Cross pattée.

If you're looking for Maltese Crosses in relation to WWI aviation, you'll find them hanging around the pilots' necks rather than on the sides of the planes, as the Blue Max is that shape.


It should come as no surprise to find a Daily Mail writer has no idea what he's talking about. The entire purpose of that paper is to spread fear (mostly of foreigners) and confusion, and it seems they like to keep their writers in that state too. Also, they probably need to have a kind of collective memory loss regarding all things Nazi. Today they love to fly the flag and bang the drum and be patriotic about the Battle of Britain and VE Day and everything, but in the 1930s the paper supported the Fascists. Small wonder they are a bit muddled up.

[Bugsda]

It's an good story but a terrible article as the writer seems to have his wars mixed up

He's a journalist, he was most probably drunk   

[Wirelizard]

Cooler-than-usual handbuilt aircraft, and more-ignorant-than-usual reporting, but apparently par for the course from the Daily Fail...

If he was going to give the plane to his dear Mum as a gift, it would be a Mother Fokker.

 

Sorry, I'll get my coat and Fokker off.

[moif]

I thought that was called a Teutonic cross...?

[Michi]

I thought that was called a Teutonic cross...?

That is really true. The Teutonic Order was the first to use it in the crusades. The colours were adopted by the later Prussia (as order state) and finally got all German when the king of Prussia became Kaiser.

[Danrit]

Looking at the height of the man compared to the Fokker this replica isn't full size. I presume the lawnmower engine wasn't powerful enough for the real deal?
Why use a lawnmower engine anyway after all that effort? It does look lovely though, I do still want one!

[carlos marighela]

Q: How do you make a Maltese Cross?

A: Poke him in the eyes.

Actually telling him that rabbit is off the menu will probably piss him off.

As for crosses, my late papa's favourite photo of himself, the one he hung in the library, was of him sitting in a bright yellow Harvard marked in Luftwaffe crosses. Taken whilst a flying instructor in Germany in the '50s.

Nice work on the plane. Alas, the barrel of the machinegun is upside down [come on someone had to point it out].

[Centaur_Seducer]

It's generally called an Iron Cross, because the famous medal is that shape. I believe among cross enthusiasts the technical name for that shape is a Cross pattée.

If you're looking for Maltese Crosses in relation to WWI aviation, you'll find them hanging around the pilots' necks rather than on the sides of the planes, as the Blue Max is that shape.


It should come as no surprise to find a Daily Mail writer has no idea what he's talking about. The entire purpose of that paper is to spread fear (mostly of foreigners) and confusion, and it seems they like to keep their writers in that state too. Also, they probably need to have a kind of collective memory loss regarding all things Nazi. Today they love to fly the flag and bang the drum and be patriotic about the Battle of Britain and VE Day and everything, but in the 1930s the paper supported the Fascists. Small wonder they are a bit muddled up.

I still read the Daily Mail, it's a hilarious paper after all