Spijker V.2

The Spijker V.2, sometimes anglicized to Spyker V.2 or Spyker-Trompenburg V.2, was a low powered, tandem seat biplane designed and built for the Dutch government for pilot training towards the end of World War I. More than seventy were built.

Design
The Spijker V.2 was a conventionally laid out single engine tractor biplane. Its wings had constant chord and no sweep or stagger. It was a two bay biplane, with two pairs of parallel interplane struts on each side and two further pairs acting as a cabane between fuselage and the upper wing. Ailerons were fitted to both upper and lower wings. Over the fuselage was a semicircular cut out in the trailing edge of the upper wing to enhance the upward view from the rear seat. The tandem open cockpits were fitted with dual controls.

The V.2 was powered by a 60 kW (80 hp) Thulin (Gnôme type) rotary engine, driving a two blade propeller and enclosed by a full 360° or 270° cowling. Its fuselage was built with wooden longerons and T-pieces. The conventional undercarriage was fixed, with mainwheels on a single axle supported at each end on V-form struts, cross braced. A tail skid completed the landing gear.

Operational history
Because of the war, in which the Netherlands remained neutral the European public did not see the V.2 until one of the first post-war air shows, the Eerste Luchtverkeer Tentoonstelling (First Air Traffic Exhibition) held in Amsterdam in August 1919. The V.2's ability to loop on a small engine was noted. Seventy-eight V.2s were built for the Dutch government. Fifty-eight of these were for the Army Aviation Group (LVA), eighteen for the Dutch Naval Aviation Service (MLD) and two for the KNIL. There were a significant number of fatal losses in both the LVA and MLD but the V.2s were flown by both services until 1924, when the MLD replaced their V.2s with Fokker S.3s; nine of their V.2s went to the LVA.