Fokker built his first plane in 1910 and taught himself to fly. In 1912 he established a small aircraft factory at Johannisthal near Berlin. During World War I he introduced the gear system that made it possible to fire a machine gun through the propeller arc without hitting the blades; the propeller itself, by means of levers and gears, operated the gun at properly timed intervals.

In the early 1920s Fokker sold an increasing number of planes to the U.S. military, and in 1922 he established the Atlantic Aircraft Corp. in New Jersey. He also maintained a large aircraft factory in The Netherlands. The first nonstop flight across the United States was made in the Fokker T-2 transport. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole (May 9, 1926) in one of Fokker's trimotor planes. During the 1920s and the 1930s Fokker concentrated on the design and development of commercial aircraft that were widely used in the fledgling U.S. commercial aviation industry. His autobiography, The Flying Dutchman, was published in 1931.