"I Do it Myself"

From the treasury of Fokker Aircraft Corp. of America went last week 400,000 shares of Fokker stock. Purchaser was General Motors which with its purchase (40% of Fokker outstanding stock) gained control. In part payment for the Fokker stock, General Motors turned over to Fokker the capital stock of the Dayton-Wright Co., assets of which consist mainly of Wright Field, Dayton Aviation Field adjoining the famed but abandoned McCook Field (Wartime Army aviation center) and also a large number of aviation patents.* Following so closely upon General Motors' acquisition of a 25% interest in Bendix Aviation Corp., makers of airplane accessories (TIME, April 22), the Fokker transaction emphatically located General Motors in the aviation field.

It was also rumored last week that General Motors would take a 15 million dollar interest in Aviation Corp., 200 million dollar aircraft holding company, which would then take over Delco-Remy (General Motors subsidiary) and Bendix.

Announcements of the General Motors-Fokker deal stressed the fact that Anthony H. G. Fokker would continue in charge of Fokker engineering and design. It was back in 1911 that Mynheer Anthony Fokker, then 21, decided that he wanted to fly. Having no plane, he built one.

Having no instructor, he taught himself.

In 1912 Mynheer Fokker tried to sell his planes to the British Government, but no sale was made. He turned, therefore, to Germany, was enthusiastically received, and, with the outbreak of the War, became suddenly a famed and feared figure. It was the Fokker DVII that brought down many an allied plane; it was Herr Fokker that first synchronized machine guns to fire between whirling propeller blades. After the War, Herr Fokker went from Germany to Holland, then (1923) to this country, of which he will soon become Mr. Fokker, U. S. citizen. Commander Richard Byrd flew a Fokker to the North Pole and another Fokker across the Atlantic; Lieutenants Maitland and Hegenberger flew a Fokker from California to Hawaii.

Only 39 years old, and reputed several times a millionaire, Airman Fokker is a stout, stocky, blue-eyed typical Hollander. His motto is "I do it myself." It is said that he gives every Fokker plane its experimental flight. Fokker stock has gone from 20 to 67 in the last few months.

*There are so many aviation patents and so much litigation developed from them that holders of aviation patents finally formed a holding company, Manufacturers' Aircraft Association, in which nearly all U. S. aviation patents were pooled, each contributor having an equity in the profits on all the patents. General Motors has, all along, been represented in the Association through membership of two subsidiaries, Dayton-Wright Co. and Fisher Bodies Corp.