starboard side toilet The corresponding port-side space was a baggage compartment accessible only from outside. Entry to the cabin was via an over-wing port side door. The tail unit was a cantilever structure with the tailplane an integral part of the upper fuselage, carrying endplate fins with straight swept leading edges above the tailplane and rounded below. The fixed surfaces were plywood skinned, but rudders and the elevator were fabric covered. These control surfaces had in-flight adjustable trim tabs. The F.K.57 first flew on 20 June 1938. There were hopes of an order for a military multi-engine trainer development with a retractable undercarriage, but the Netherlands Army Air Service (LVA) bought Focke-Wulf Fw 58s instead and no more were built. Operational history On 22 September 1938 the F.K.57 headed out from Ypenburg with de Kok on board to fly to Shell's oil interests in the Dutch East Indies and beyond. After stops at Brindisi and Baghdad, they reached Karachi on the 24 September, having covered 7,377 km (4,585 mi) . The F.K.57 was wireless equipped and the news of political crisis over Hitler's intention to annexe the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland, which was resolved with the Munich agreement of 29 September 1938 was serious enough to cause them to return home, again in three days. The F.K.57 was used by de Kok for flights around Europe for the next year until the outbreak of World War II, when it was impressed into service with the LVA. It was destroyed at Ypenburg, together with many of the LVA's aircraft on the first day of the German invasion of the Netherlands, 10 May 1940. Specifications References Cited sources F.K.57 1930s Dutch civil aircraft Gull-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1938 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft