Anthony Fokker was born in Java in 1890. As a boy, he loved making paper aeroplanes and at the age of just 20 years old, started an aviation company in Wiesbaden, Germany. Fokker's third effort at designing an aircraft - 'Spin III', was purchased by the German military authorities in 1913.

At the outbreak of WW1, Fokker began work on a new single-seater fighter plane. He was convinced that it was vitally important to design a system whereby the pilot could fire a machinegun at the same time as flying the plane. Fokker's solution was to have a forward-firing machinegun, which was synchronised with the propeller.

Fokker's experience of designing fast and efficient fighter aircraft in the war was put to use immediately in the 1920s when he built a series of ever more luxurious civilian passenger aircraft. This went on to form not only the basis of the KLM fleet, but many other national airlines.