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| Reinhold Platz | |
|---|---|
| Name | Reinhold Platz |
| Birth date | 22 March 1886 |
| Birth place | Gotha, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Death date | 11 March 1966 |
| Death place | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Aircraft designer, engineer, craftsman |
| Known for | Chief designer at Fokker, early monoplane and biplane developments |
Reinhold Platz was a German aircraft designer and craftsman who became chief designer at the Dutch firm Fokker during the formative years of aviation. He played a central role in the development of several influential First World War-era and interwar aircraft, collaborating with entrepreneurs and aviators across Germany, the Netherlands, and United States. Platz combined practical carpentry and war experience with innovative approaches to airframe construction that influenced designers at Fokker-Werke and contemporaneous firms such as Albatros Flugzeugwerke and Bristol Aeroplane Company.
Platz was born in Gotha in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and trained as a carpenter and joiner, receiving practical instruction typical of late 19th-century German guilds. His apprenticeship exposed him to timber-work used in carriage and early aircraft construction, similar to crafts learned in workshops associated with firms like Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and Siemens-Schuckert. Platz later worked in factories and on construction projects tied to industrial centres such as Leipzig and Erfurt, where he acquired skills comparable to those of contemporaries at Messerschmitt and Heinkel workshops. During this period he encountered engineers and pilots linked to aviation pioneers including Otto Lilienthal and followers of Wright brothers developments, situating him within a network that would bring him to Anthony Fokker.
Platz joined Fokker in the Netherlands as part of a growing team responsible for turning the entrepreneurial activity of Anthony Fokker into production aircraft. At Fokker he rose from workshop foreman to chief designer, working alongside test pilots and business figures such as Hermann Köhl and staff who later moved between companies like Gothaer Waggonfabrik and LVG. During the First World War his role expanded as Fokker undertook contracts with the German Empire and Central Powers, coordinating with organisations such as the Luftstreitkräfte and suppliers including Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Platz supervised timber-framed fuselage construction and was integral to series production that supplied front-line units engaged in operations like the Battle of Verdun and on the Western Front. His management at Fokker-Werke paralleled contemporaneous industrial leaders at Sopwith Aviation Company and Nieuport in scaling workshop processes to wartime demand.
Platz is associated with innovations in parasol wing and cantilever monoplane structures that echoed advances by designers at Junkers and Friedrichshafen. He contributed to the development of distinctive welded steel tube fuselages, wooden wing ribs and plywood coverings, integrating methods comparable to those used by Hannover and Sablatnig. Notable airframes produced under his oversight included fighters and reconnaissance types that influenced later models from SPAD and Sikorsky—with construction techniques that improved torsional rigidity and field repairability. Platz worked on designs utilising rotary engines of manufacturers such as Le Rhône and Gnome, and inline engines from Mercedes and BMW, coordinating cowling and nacelle arrangements analogous to solutions from Albatros and Fokker D.VII-era teams. His emphasis on simple, robust detailing facilitated export and license production to companies like Aviatik and postwar Dutch firms including N.V. Nationale Vliegtuig Industrie. Place-keeping methods for wing bracing and control surface rigging showed parallels to control systems experimented with by Santos-Dumont adherents and later refined by engineers at Gloster and Handley Page.
After the First World War and the interwar transformations that affected manufacturers such as Fokker and Vickers, Platz continued to influence aircraft production practices in the Netherlands and retained contacts with engineers in Germany, France, and United Kingdom. Though Fokker relocated some operations and leadership shifted toward commercial aviation markets and connections with figures like Robertson Aircraft Corporation, Platz’s workshop techniques informed repair and training methods adopted by civil airlines, aero clubs, and military re-equipment programmes in countries including Belgium, Switzerland, and Sweden. His approaches to lightweight structure and reparability anticipated later trends in sport and utility aircraft produced by firms such as de Havilland and Cessna. Aviation historians and curators at institutions like the National Air and Space Museum and Luchtvaartmuseum Aviodrome have examined Platz’s contributions when restoring Fokker Dr.I replicas and preserving artifacts related to World War I aviation.
Platz lived in Amsterdam in his later years and maintained ties with colleagues and former apprentices who moved through European and American aerospace industries, from workshops at Bölkow and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm to universities such as Technische Universität Berlin and Delft University of Technology. He was not widely celebrated with high-profile awards like recipients of the Pour le Mérite or Knight's Cross, but his craftsmanship earned respect among contemporaries including pilots and engineers associated with Fokker and preserving organisations such as the Royal Netherlands Air Force historical service. Platz’s legacy is preserved through surviving airframes, workshop records in museum collections, and scholarly work by authors and archivists studying early 20th-century aviation development at institutions like Imperial War Museum, Centraal Museum, and various aerospace archives.
Category:German aerospace engineers Category:Fokker people Category:1886 births Category:1966 deaths