Meet the Fokker! WWI replica is hand-built and powered by a mower engine

It could be a stunt from a First World War epic - the German fighter plane preparing to swoop in for an air battle to the death.

But while the replica Fokker Eindecker looks like a Hollywood prop, the plane was actually built by amateur pilot Dave Stephens at his home.

The single-seater is one of two self-assembled aircraft that he regularly takes to heights of up to 10,000ft over Essex.

Where seagulls dare: Pilot Stan Hodgkins flies the Fokker over the South Coast

Fair enough, perhaps. Until you ask the 41-year-old about the engine powering it.

He enthusiastically points out that the original 1915 model had 'a big old-fashioned rotary engine in the front', while 'the engine in mine is an adapted lawnmower engine'.

'It's 690cc, which is half the size of the engine in the family car parked outside your house.'

The cockpit is open to the air ('when it rains, it doesn't half hurt your face'), the wings are made out of 'a fabric so fine that you could punch a hole in it', the metal fuselage is desperately flimsy and the whole structure weighs just 114 kilos, or 18 stone.

If you want to know what the mighty beast sounds like taking off, there are videos of it posted online on the YouTube website.

And what DOES it sound like? A lawnmower, of course.

But that takes away none of the romance, insists Mr Stephens. 'When you're flying in the Fokker, it's a feeling unlike any other.



All the people that I've let fly in it say exactly the same thing. You're out in the elements and you're part of the aeroplane. It's amazing.'

A former CCTV engineer turned millionaire businessman, Mr Stephens built the three-quartersize replica aircraft from a kit ordered from the U.S. that arrived in a 8ft x 3ft x 1ft box.

He spent five months knocking the pieces together, fitting the engine and painting it.

The final result is a machine that runs on ordinary petrol - its tank holds £25-worth of unleaded - with a top speed of 50mph.

Mr Stephens estimates the whole project cost him around £14,000, a lot for a hobby, but not a stratospheric sum.

But one thing troubled me when I first saw Mr Stephens' pride and joy.



The Fokker Eindecker was (albeit briefly) a centrepiece of the Kaiser's war effort. Its job in World War One was, not to put too fine a point on it, to kill Britons and other Allied troops.



Proud: Dave Stephens with the Fokker Eindecker he built using a lawnmower engine

So successful was it in combat that our side referred to the 'Fokker scourge' called its victims 'Fokker fodder'.



The huge Maltese Crosses on the fuselage and wings initially left me feeling more uneasy.

Happily, Mr Stephens makes it clear there is nothing political about his love for the plane.

Should I have had any doubts about his denial, these are dispelled when he fails to recall the name of the German air force.



Not many Nazi apologists have trouble identifying the Luftwaffe.



Mr Stephens bought the Fokker 'because I had a radio-controlled one when I was a boy and I absolutely loved it'.

He also owns a replica Allied plane - the U.S. Second World War Mustang.

The Fokker Eindecker is fascinating to aeronautical historians because it 'was the first aircraft to turn aircraft from targets into a weapon,' explains Mr Stephens.

'The gun on the front had a synchronisation cable so that it wouldn't fire when the propeller blade was in the way.

'This meant it could effectively shoot straight through the whirling blades, so the pilot could just point his plane at the other plane, pull the trigger and shoot it down.

'British planes, meanwhile, had the guns pointing out of the back or over the top of the wings - so they couldn't aim so easily.'

Mr Stephens did have to contact the German embassy to apply for permission to use the official military markings on his plane.

'I got a letter back saying they have no problem with me using the official markings,' he said.

'But they told me that if you put swastikas on the aircraft you must not fly in German airspace.'



Original: A German-built Fokker Eindecker being flown during World War One

It is, of course, a criminal offence to display Nazi symbols in today's Germany. (Intriguingly, Mr Stephens's Mustang does carry swastikas - the U.S. pilots stuck one on the side of their planes each time they shot down a Nazi aircraft.)

Mr Stephens flies his plane dressed in a flimsy balaclava, headphones (so he can hear and speak to air traffic control) and, in the recent warm weather, nothing more than a T-shirt.

You've got to admire his sense of derring do. But isn't it just a little dangerous to go out in such a lightweight vessel and in such lightweight clothes?

A helmet would not be much use, he points out, adding: 'Flying is quite a safe sport. It's not as dangerous as people think.

'Look, I've got a family and kids to think about so obviously I don't put myself at risk. When you look at the figures, horse-riding is more dangerous. Even fishing has a higher fatality rating.

'When I was taking out a life insurance policy, I found out that all sorts of things are a lot more dangerous than flying.'