Van Berkel's Patent (NV Maatschappij tot vervaardiging van snijmachines volgens Van Berkel's Patent en van andere Werktuigen) was a Dutch company designing and producing meat processing cutters and balances.
As neutrals in World War I, the Dutch armed forces experienced difficulties in obtaining military aircraft from abroad. To ease the problems of both the Dutch Army Aviation Group (LVA) and the Dutch Navy Aviation Group (MLD), in August 1917 the Ministry of War encouraged companies to become involved in aircraft production. The only other manufacturer to volunteer besides Spyker was Van Berkel's Patent. They began by building the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 floatplane fighter under licence as the Van Berkel W-A.
Van Berkel W-A
The Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 was a German biplane fighter floatplane of World War I. In April 1918, a W.12 made an emergency landing in the neutral territory of the Netherlands, where it was interned and flight tested by the Dutch. In 1919 the government of the Netherlands bought a licence to build the aircraft and 35 W.12s were subsequently manufactured by the Van Berkel company of Rotterdam as the W-A, serving with the Dutch Naval Air Service until 1933.
Van Berkel W-A, registration W-57 (replica) Aviodrome, Lelystad, Netherlands, 30 November 2018
