De Schelde S.20

07/20/2026. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "In 1939, Theo E. Slot, chief designer at the aircraft construction department of the Royal Company De Schelde dockyard at Vlissingen (Flushing) in the Netherlands, designed a four-seater low-wing light cabin aircraft. Possessing a wooden wing and duralumin fuselage pod and tail booms, the S.20 was powered by a 160 hp Hirth HM 506A six-cylinder air-cooled engine installed as a pusher and driving a two-bladed airscrew between the tail booms. A fully retractable nosewheel undercarriage was fitted, the nosewheel being steerable, and provision was made for the installation of radio and military training equipment (bomb sight, camera, etc) .

The aircraft could be used as a training aircraft for pilots who would in the future fly nose-wheel landing gear types, such as the Fokker D.23 and the Douglas DC-4. It could also be used as a sport aircraft and as an air taxi. There was therefore a reasonably good chance that the S.20 would have a bright future.

The prototype made its first flight on March 29, 1940, and featured a full military livery and carried the manufacturers test marking Y-200, equivalent to the British 'Class B' marking. Three letters were assigned: 'X' to Fokker, 'Y' to Pander (later De Schelde) and 'Z' to Koolhoven. Although the civil registration PH-ATY had been assigned on August 17, 1939, it was never applied. The aircraft was piloted on its first flight by J.T.H. Reintjes, who had recently joined De Schelde as a test pilot.

When the Netherlands entered WW II on May 10, 1940, no orders for the S.20 had yet been received because the test flight program had only just begun. The S.20 had not been damaged by the war, but because all flying activities on the Dutch side were prohibited after May 14, the aircraft was stored away until further notice. Together with the S.21 fighter under construction, the S.20 was suspended from an attic in one of the factory buildings of De Schelde.

After the company came under German control, the Germans initially paid little attention to it. However, after Fokker test pilot Hidde Leegstra and chief P.J.C. Vos had fled in a Fokker G.1 to England on May 5, 1941, the Luftwaffe launched a search throughout the Netherlands for hidden aircraft; the sole S.20, and the partly constructed S.21, were transferred to the Luftwaffe Zerlegebetreib (dismantling plant) in Utrecht. There they were subjected to maximum load tests, during which both broke into pieces. The S.20 Certificate of Registration expired August 17, 1942.