Koolhoven

Although many of its aircraft were as unsuccessful economically as they were brilliant from a design standpoint, the company managed to score several 'hits', amongst them the FK-58 single-seat monoplane fighter, the FK-50 twin-engine passenger transport, and the FK-41, built in England under licence by Desoutter.

[1] The postwar years had not been good to him; the British Aerial Transport Company for which he was chief designer went bankrupt and all other manufacturers were struggling for survival too hard to think of hiring.

For its first five years, 1925 to 1930, the company managed to stay afloat by making one-off purpose-built airplanes to order, slowly branching out into the private aircraft sector and trying to break into the military market.

By 1933 the military market had picked up and Koolhoven increasingly built trainers and observation aircraft for the Dutch air force as well as several other countries.

By 1938, with war looming, the company's order books continued to fill as air forces from all over Europe were virtually fighting over each plane that rolled off the production line.

Even France found itself buying Koolhoven FK-58 fighters as its own aircraft industry was unable to keep up with the demand from the Armée de l'Air.

As a prelude to the German invasion of the Netherlands, the Luftwaffe set out to destroy as much as possible of the Dutch Air Force on the ground.

On the morning of that day, a massive armada of German bombers appeared over Waalhaven and almost completely destroyed the airfield and its surrounding facilities.

Over the next ten years various attempts were made to start up new projects, but apart from the construction of two prototype sailplanes nothing happened and in 1956 N.V. Koolhoven Aeroplanes closed and was liquidated.