aviation - the past, present and future of flight

D

emand for civilian air travel

increased as the world

recovered from the devastating

wars that raged in the late

1930s and 1940s, and by the 1950s the

notion of  ying for pleasure had really

caught on.

The problem was that short-haul aircraft

hadn’t been developed in the same way

their intercontinental brethren, with types

such as the wartime Douglas Dakota and

DC-4 still in widespread use. There was

a gap in the market for a new short-haul

airliner, and the Netherlands-based Fokker

company was determined provide the

answer with its F.27 Friendship.

The prototype, PH-NIV, made a

successful maiden  ight at Schiphol on

November 24, 1955. The company’s

 rst airliner for 20 years, it could trace its

ancestry to the famous Fokker Trimotor

airliners of the 1920s and 1930s which

equipped many airlines.

In 1912, Dutchman Anthony Fokker

had established a company in Germany to

produce his  rst monoplane, and then built

 ghters for the Kaiser throughout World War

One, including the famous Triplane. In 1919

he returned to the Netherlands and founded

a factory in Amsterdam.

In the inter-war years, the company

developed to become one of the world’s

largest manufacturers, with works in the

Netherlands and US. But in May 1940 the

Netherlands was occupied, its factories

taken over for German aircraft production.

After the war Fokker projects included

licensed construction of Hawker Hunter

jet  ghters, but the Dutch government was

anxious to restart its civil aviation industry

and in 1951 funded research by Fokker into

a medium-sized airliner.

The results showed that airlines

sought a twin-engined, pressurised, 28 to

36-passenger aircraft with an optimum stage

distance of about 300 miles (483km). It

should be simple and rugged with a versatile

interior – a Dakota replacement.

Funded by a government loan,

development and tooling of the new design

began in September 1953. In keeping with

the company’s tradition, a high-wing layout

was chosen for easier ground loading and

improved passenger view, and a high-aspect

ENDURING

FRIENDSHIP

22 Aviation News incorporating Jets July 2018

Stephen Skinner tells the story of the Fokker Friendship

and the Fairchild F-27 and FH-227.

22-27_f27DC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 22 06/06/2018 11:13