| Fokker M 15 (Eindecker IV) – the first fighter powered by two-row radial engine in the world. The prototype for all the Fokker monoplane series was the French-built Morane-Saulinier typ H plane, captured intact during the early period of WWI.
A.Fokker designed for his fighters the first mechanical synchronizer to allow the gun to fire through propeller disc plane. The Fokker E I-III were built in big series during 1914-1916 an used widely at all fronts of WWI.
A.Fokker designed the E IV on base of his previous constructions. The new airplane was classified as heavy fighter armed with two or three machine guns and was equipped with powerful engine. The bulb over the cockpit and machine guns was the external identification feature. The fuselage main frame was strengthened.
The first sample of Fokker E IV took air first time in November, 1915. The serial production started at the Fokker factory in Schwerin in February,1916. The Fokker E IV fighters entered service in March, 1916. The famous aces of WWI, honored by the highest German award “Pour Le Merite”, piloted Fokker E IV, and Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelman downed three enemy aircraft each. But these aces, in spite of high punch of three machine guns, noted that the E IV was hard in piloting and had bad maneuverability.
In mid-1916, when the new types of fighters were posted to European fronts, the Fokker E IV aircraft were transferred to the Eastern (Russian) front.
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