For many decades, the V.3 was thought to be a modification to the V.2 instead of a separate aircraft. The designation was known, and assigned in error to the first triplane, which also had cantilever wings. That aircraft was, however, the V.4, not the V.3. A period photo in the book German Combat Planes, authored by Ray Wagner and Heinz Nowarra and published in the United States in 1971, shows a "Fokker V.2" aircraft with a redesigned empennage strongly reminiscent of the Albatros D.III in appearance, as a possible step in its experimental program.