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The Fokker M.3 saw another advance in the design of Fokker aircraft. The M.2 had seen the adoption of a welded steel tube fuselage, but covered in a complex streamlined wooden outer structure. The improved aerodynamics provided by the “torpedo” shape did not make up for the weight of the wooden structure.
For the M.3 Fokker retained the welded steel tube fuselage but abandoned the outer shell. The fabric covering was placed over the simple rectangular fuselage. The first M.3 was powered by a 95hp Mercedes engine, contained within aluminium cowling. The rest of the aircraft was similar to the M.2, with the same rectangular swept-back wings, tail assembly and landing gear as the earlier aircraft.
The first flight of the M.3 came on 26 September 1913. It was a difficult aircraft to fly. A further variant powered by a 70hp Renault engine was even worse, and was destroyed in a crash in Russia during 1914. The Fokker M.4 would be a rather different (although no more successful) aircraft.