Fokker Scourge
The Fokker Scourge was a term coined by the British press in the summer of 1915 during World War I. It applied to a period of time when the new German Fokker E.I design became operational — the first plane with "synchronization gear" (often referred to, and mistakenly so, as "interrupter gear"), which enabled a machine gun to fire straight ahead through the propellor, the bullets being precisely timed to miss the blades. This gave the plane superiority over existing designs of fighter aircraft, which had guns mounted in less convenient positions, and a large number of Allied aircraft were quickly shot down. By the end of the summer the German Luftstreitkräfte had air superiority, denying the Allies access to vital intelligence derived from continual aerial reconnaissance.
New Allied designs were soon in production which were a technical match for the Fokker such as the FE2 and Airco DH.2 "pushers" and the tiny Nieuport 11. However, when the Germans introduced the Albatros D.II in August 1916, and then the Albatros D.III in December 1916, they were able to again turn the tables, and in April 1917 decimated the RFC — a period known as "Bloody April".
In the following two years, Allied aviation became overwhelming in both quality and quantity, with the result that the Germans were only able to maintain limited control over a small area of the front at any time. When even this seemed threatened, they started a crash programme to develop a new aircraft. The result was the famous Fokker D.VII, leading to a short but notable second "Fokker Scourge".