[GuerraCivil]

On paper NA-16-5 promises were in all aspects clearly better than Fokker D XXI - Finnish version with Mercury engine made it at most 418 km/h at 5000 meters. Wingload was heavier than that of NA-16-5 "paper fighter". Fokker D XXI was considered too stiff plane for dogfights against Soviet I-16 and I-153 planes - in some tests it was found out that even Blenheim Mk I bomber could make a turn more quickly than the poor Fokker! As a general rule dogfights were thus avoided and Fokkers concentrated on SB and DB bombers which were sometimes difficult to catch with Fokker´s speed.

And not to speak of nonexistent self-sealing tanks and armour plate - luxuries which would have made the already stiff plane even more heavy and clumsy.

But on the other hand it was a simple and easy-to-maintain plane, which adapted well to the small Finnish airfields and frozen lakes. In 1936 it was available as a really flying plane and the license-building option in Finland was quite cheap when Finnish raw materials could be used for construction.

Most of the about 40 Fokkers fighters available at the eve of Winter War were Finnish-built aircraft and in a way Fokker D XXI was more a Finnish than Dutch plane (most of the Fokker D XXI´s of world have been built in Finland + most of type´s combat service in Finland). And despite type´s shortcomings Fokker pilots claimed in Winter War about 120 air victories - so maybe not so bad after all.