Fokker F.VII

Fokker F.VII

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_F-VII

Fokker F.VII

Swissair Fokker F.VIIb-3 m (CH-192) piloted by Walter Mittelholzer in Kassala (Sudan), February 1934.
Role	Passenger & military transport
Manufacturer	Fokker
First flight	1924
Introduced	1925
Primary users	SABENA KLM Polish Air Force Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT
Produced	1925-1932
Developed from	Fokker F.V
Variants	Fokker F.10

The Fokker F.VII was an airliner produced in the 1920s by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, Fokker's American subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and other companies under licence.

Design and development

The original Walter Rethel design of 1924 was a single-engined high-winged monoplane. Anthony Fokker modified the design with two additional engines to enter the inaugural Ford Reliability Tour in 1925, which it won. Consequently, the production versions F.VIIa/3m, F.VIIb/3m and F.10 all had three engines, and the aircraft became popularly known as the Fokker Trimotor.

Operational history

The Josephine Ford at The Henry Ford.

The Southern Cross in 1943.

The 8- to 12-passenger Fokker was the aircraft of choice for many early airlines, both in Europe and the Americas. Along with the similar Ford Trimotor, it dominated the American market in the late 1920s. However, the popularity of the Fokker quickly came to an end after the 1931 death of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in the crash of TWA Flight 599, a Fokker F.10. The subsequent investigation, which revealed problems with the Fokker's plywood-laminate construction, resulted in the banning of the aircraft on commercial flights, and the rise of all-metal aircraft such as the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2.

Pioneers and Explorers

The F.VII was used by many explorers and aviation pioneers, including:

Richard E. Byrd claimed to have flown over the North Pole in the Fokker F.VIIa/3m Josephine Ford on May 9, 1926, a few days before Roald Amundsen accomplished the feat in the airship Norge.

Two lieutenants of the United States Army Air Corps, Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger, made the first flight from the continental United States to Hawaii (c. 2,400 mi/3,862 km) in the Fokker C-2 Bird of Paradise in June 1927. That same month, Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen and two others flew the C-2 America across the Atlantic, crash-landing off the coast of France. It was the third successful non-stop transatlantic flight by a heavier-than-air craft.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's F.VIIb/3m Southern Cross was the first aircraft to cross the Pacific from the United States to Australia in June 1928, and the first to cross the Tasman Sea, flying from Australia to New Zealand and back in September of that year.

Lieutenant Colonel 'Dan' Minchin, Captain Leslie Hamilton and Princess Loewenstein-Wertheim attempted to become the first aviators to cross the Atlantic from east to west using a Fokker F.VIIa named the St. Raphael on August 31, 1927. Their fate remains unknown.

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic on June 17, 1928, as a passenger aboard the Fokker F.VIIb/3m Friendship.

A group of U. S. Army Air Corps flyers, led by then-Major Carl Spaatz, set an endurance record of over 150 hours with the Question Mark, a Fokker C-2A over Los Angeles on January 1 to January 7, 1929. The purpose of this mission was to experiment with aerial refueling.

Variants

F.VII: Single-engined transport aircraft, five built.
F.VIIa (F.VIIa/1m): Single-engined transport aircraft, slightly larger than F.VII with new undercarriage and wing. Flown on March 12, 1925. First aircraft had 420 hp (310 kW) inline Packard Liberty engine but remaining 39 F.VIIa had mostly radial Bristol Jupiter or Pratt Whitney Wasp engines.
F.VIIa/3m: Version with two additional underwing engines, flown on September 4, 1925. The first two aircraft were identical to the F.VIIa. From the third aircraft, the fuselage was 31 in (80 cm) longer and was powered by with 200 hp (149 kW) Wright J-4 Whirlwind radial engines. Probably only 18 were built while many F.VIIas were upgraded to the F.VIIa/3m standard.

First two Fokker F.VIIAs were converted into three-engined transport aircraft.

F.VIIb/3m: Main production version with greater span, 154 built including built under licence.
F.10: American airliner version, enlarged to carry 12 passengers.

Licenced copies

SABCA, 29 aircraft built.
Avia, 18 aircraft built.
Three aircraft built in Italy as the IMAM Ro.10.
Plage i Laśkiewicz. Between 1929 and 1930 eleven passenger and 20 domestically developed (by Jerzy Rudlicki) bomber aircraft.
Three aircraft built in Spain.
Avro, 14 aircraft known as Avro 618 Ten.
Atlantic Aircraft Corporation

Operators

Civilian operators

Belgium

SABENA operated 28 aircraft.

Denmark

Det Danske Luftfartselskab operated three F.VIIa aircraft.

France

CIDNA operated seven F.VIIa aircraft.
STAR operated one F.VIIa aircraft.

Hungary

Malert operated two F.VIIa aircraft.

Netherlands

KLM received all five F.VII aircraft and 15 F.VIIas.

Poland

Aero operated six F.VIIa aircraft for a short period in 1928. Since 1 January, 1929 all aircraft were handed over to PLL LOT airline.
Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT operated six F.VIIas and 13 F.VIIb/3ms between 1929 and 1939.