The Fokker V.4 was a prototype German fighter aircraft of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Inspired by the successful Sopwith Triplane

Sopwith Triplane

The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. Pilots nicknamed it the Tripehound or simply the Tripe. The Triplane became operational with the Royal Naval Air Service in early 1917 and was...

, Anthony Fokker

Anthony Fokker

Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer and an aircraft manufacturer. He is most famous for the fighter aircraft he produced in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Fokker Triplane the and the Fokker D.VII, but after the collapse of...

 chose to create a triplane fighter. Reinhold Platz

Reinhold Platz

Reinhold Platz was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer in service of the Dutch company Fokker....

 was responsible for the design. The V.4 looked very much like the later Dr.I

Fokker Dr.I

The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918...

, but is easily recognized by the lack of interplane strut

Interplane strut

An interplane strut is an aircraft airframe component designed to transmit lift and landing loads between wing panels on biplanes and other aircraft with multi-wing designs. They also maintain the correct angle of incidence for the connected wing panels and are often braced with wires...

s. All three wings were cantilever and the lower two wings had the same span. The rudder

Rudder

A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...

 was balanced, but the aileron

Aileron

Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector...

s and elevator

Elevator (aircraft)

Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's orientation by changing the pitch of the aircraft, and so also the angle of attack of the wing. In simplified terms, they make the aircraft nose-up or nose-down...

s lacked horn balances.

In the past, this aircraft was given the V.3 designation in error. Aero Historian Peter M. Grosz finally corrected the error while researching Fokker fighter developments.

The V.4 was eventually fitted with V.5 wings and sent to Austria-Hungary for evaluation.