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The Fokker M.16 was one of a series of biplanes designed adopted by Anthony Fokker in an attempt to find a replacement for his successful monoplanes. One version of the aircraft was ordered by the Austro-Hungarians, but the order was cancelled after a crash in testing.
The M.16 was built in two versions. Both were powered by water-cooled Mercedes engines, and used the same basic configuration. This featured two wings of very similar sizes. The wings were attached to the top and bottom of the fuselage, meaning that the cockpits were level with the upper wing. The pilot’s head and shoulders thus stuck out above the wing, giving him good level and upwards visibility but poor downwards and forward visibility, blocked by the wings and by the engine.
The M.16E was the first version to be completed, entering testing over the winter of 1915-1916. It was a single-bay single seat biplane, powered by a 100hp Mercedes D.I engine. It featured a comma-shaped rudder and tail plane, a simple V-shaped undercarriage and wing warping controls. It was armed with one LMG 08/15. In tests it proved to be under-powered, and was not accepted by the German army.
The M.16Z was a two-seat two-bay biplane, powered by a 160hp Mercedes D.III engine. It thus had longer wings than the M.16E. The comma-shaped rudder was replaced by a rectangular model. Once again it proved to be under-powered, and did not interest the German army.
The Austro-Hungarians were more interested. They provided Fokker with an Austro-Daimler water-cooled 160hp engine and ordered a prototype. A provisional order was placed for production aircraft, but this was cancelled after a second prototype, built locally by Aviatik, crashed during tests. Instead, the Austrian’s ordered a number of Fokker M.17Es, under the designation B.II.