Reinhold Platz

Does anyone know what happened to R. Platz after the war? Where he lived?

Mark,

I'm not sure about right after the war, but I have an article from the magazine section of the Chicago Tribune from about 1968 at home. It is about Ed Swearingen's Fokker DVIII, which he built with assistance from Herr Platz. They corresponded by mail, and Platz provided many details from memory. Our family doctor, Dr. Vrla, helped with translation. Unfortunately, Reinhold Platz died shortly before the aircraft was completed. When I get back home in a day or two, I can check the article for more details.

Rich

Hi Mark,

Where are you going with this one? Looking for survivors or descendants? I have thought that would be a good idea for some historian in Germany to pursue. The last time I enquired into it, I was told there were many privacy laws passed recently that restricted searches into family specifics. We have some similar privacy laws here, but I'm assuming in the case of some Germans, a certain aspect of the legislation was to keep the "skeletons" of war away from the front door.

I actually have a original letter from Platz from the late 1950's. A gent by the name of Julius "Rosey" Head, hailing from Chicago, was engaged in building a replica Fokker D.VII and he wrote Reinhold asking for very specific answers. One was the question of taper or wing dihedral. He wanted to know if it was 2 degrees or flat. The responses from Reinhold were not what "Rosey" expected to hear, (but if he really thought about it, it was what he should have expected). Part of Reinhold's response relating to dihedral was, "I don't recall if it did have dihedral, but it should be fine if you built some dihedral into the wing." The other responses followed this same line of exactitude and detail.

I'm assuming you have obtained a copy of "Fokker, The Creative Years" by A.R. Weyl and edited by J.M. Bruce after Weyl's death. Many years ago, Peter Grosz obtained a great deal of Weyl's source material, and he has often declared the incorrect bias of Weyl in his praising of Platz as the brains behind Fokker, and has proven several "facts" in the book by Weyl to be either in error or fabrication.

I had tried to trace family descendants of Fokker test pilots, thinking they may have personal photos of the test pilot or aircraft from the period. I actually have a photo album from a Fokker test pilot, that's what gave me the idea to follow up on it.

Best,
Dave Watts