Four FK.31s were built by VL in Helsinki but they were found to be even worse than those supplied from Rotterdam. The second, KO-66 only made 1.5 flight hours before withdrawal in February 1932. Photo from: Finnish Air Force

Frits Koolhoven's FK.34 thinking it's a submarine. This was a seaplane conversion of an FK.31, possibly H-NACF (c/n 211). A second demonstration ended similarly with a leaking float and the Dutch navy lost its interest. Photo from: Johannes Kaauw / Pabo collection

While the FK.31's service career in Finland was undistinguished, this machine made it to Latvia and Poland on an official visit by air force commander Väinö Vuori, the short man in flying garb. 3H-33, later KO-33, has a machine gun mounting in the rear cockpit here even though the Finns really only used the FK.31 as a trainer. NVI c/n 214 is painted on the nose and tail.

Frits Koolhoven's FK 31 reconnaissance fighter was a fiasco in Finland. Eight Dutch-built machines were found to be of poor quality. The four examples built locally by VL were reportedly even worse, and not accepted by the Finnish air force. Funnily enough, 'Kolho Vene' as the type was nicknamed in Finland means something like 'clumsy boat'. Information that KO-37 was lost in a crash is incorrect according to a Finnish source. Photo from: Hollandaircraft.nl

Frits Koolhoven's designs bore his initials whoever he worked for, and here his name is also painted on the rudder of a NVI FK.31 reconnaissance fighter. Koolhoven himself is the large man talking to an officer to the left of the tailfin. First flown in 1923, the FK.31 set some world speed records with payload flown by Charles Descamps in January 1925, but was a failure in Finnish and Netherlands East Indies military service. A Netherlands army fly-off against the Fokker C.V was lost in February 1924. This is the prototype of an improved version, seen during another unsuccessful pitch against the C.V on 11 May 1925. Registration H-NACF has been worn by this airframe. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie