The construction, however, was in the familiar Fokker style with wooden wings covered with plywood and fabric, and a steel-tube fuselage, also fabric-covered.

A single prototype was built and after exhibition at the 1928 Paris Air Show was accepted into Royal Netherlands Army Aviation Group service, but no further orders for the type were placed.

The following year, the Royal Netherlands Navy issued a requirement for a new reconnaissance seaplane, and Fokker submitted a revised version of the C.VIII.

Slightly larger than its landplane counterpart, the C.VIII-W had a different engine, a new radiator arrangement, and twin pontoons as undercarriage, units similar to those used previously on the C.VII.

The pontoon strutting incorporated a gap, allowing for the carriage of a torpedo under the fuselage for training purposes.