Stand Alone

Stand Alone

As the founders of Dutch aviation, idealist Albert Plesman and opportunist Anthony Fokker, are inextricably bound together. They cannot live with each other or without. Nevertheless, during the Interwar Period when the world is heading towards a new war, they join forces to set up civil aviation in the Netherlands.

August 1925 – October 1925

While the KLM is still suffering record losses, Fokker participates in the Ford Air Reliability Tour. He’s there to advertise, so that he can also earn from America’s enormous growth market. Under Fokker’s leadership, the tour changes into a race. He wins and the investors are insisting on working with him. General Motors offers Fokker money to open a factory in America where he will be calling the shots. The future looks bright. He also meets a woman, Violet Austman, with whom he falls madly in love. Their romance can’t take off, however, because Fokker receives news that his father is dying, and he takes the first ship home.

Back in the Netherlands, Plesman has a secret: he has covertly invested in a prototype from another aircraft manufacturer, Frits Koolhoven, with whom Plesman gets on much better than with Fokker. The Board would never have approved this investment, because van Vlissingen and van Aalst are old friends of Fokker and are also financially connected to his factory. But the test flight is a disaster. The airplane crashes and the pilot dies. Van Aalst now has enough ammunition to oust Plesman from the KLM, and Fokker sees his chance to take over Koolhovens factory for one-tenth the price.

But before Van Aalst gets the chance to have Plesman fired, he resigns himself. He is tired of fighting. To the Board’s bewilderment the entire staff follow Plesman’s suit. A day later, Van Vlissingen reluctantly admits that they want Plesman back as director. He is the KLM, whether they like it or not.

Fokker’s father dies in Haarlem. Throughout his life, Fokker wanted his father to be proud of him, but even on his deathbed, the man was disappointed in Fokker for tarnishing the family name. After his death, Fokker asks himself what’s keeping him in the Netherlands. By taking over the Koolhoven factory, he has a monopoly position here, but America is still unexplored territory. What’s more, Violet is there. When he returns to New York, she is the first person he visits.