Aircraft Maintenance in the Netherlands

IN a small country like Holland there is little room for rival concerns and it is not surprising that the aircraft industry is centred on single firms for its different spheres of activity: K.L.M. as the scheduled airline, Fokker as the manufacturer and the Diepen companies for charter and servicing work. The present notes deal with the activities and organization of the latter, which arise from the interest in flying taken by Mr Frits Diepen, a member of the Dutch shipping family and before the war the private owner of a Pander light aeroplane. Mr Diepen was in a concentration camp until 1942 and in the remaining period of the occupation he devoted his organizing powers to the clandestine construction of a two‐seater pusher monoplane, the Difoga, with a converted Ford V‐8 engine. The curious name was a contraction of Diepen‐Ford‐Garage. This machine was com‐pleted and flown after the liberation and, although too heavy to be successful itself, it formed a practical statement of the formula from which the Promotor was developed.