https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_F.VII
The Fokker F.VII, also known as the Fokker Trimotor, 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.
The F.VII was designed as a single-engined transport aircraft by Walter Rethel.
Five examples of this model were built for the Dutch airline KLM. One of these
planes, registered H-NACC, was used in 1924 for the first flight from the
Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies.
In 1925, while living in the US, Anthony Fokker heard of the inaugural Ford
Reliability Tour, which was proposed as a competition for transport aircraft.
Fokker had the company's head designer, Reinhold Platz, convert a single-engined
F.VII A airliner (a 1924 Walter Rethel design) to a trimotor configuration,
powered by 200 hp Wright Whirlwind radial engines. The resulting aircraft was
designated the Fokker F.VII A/3M. Following shipment to the US, it won the Ford
Reliability Tour in late 1925. The Trimotor's structure consisted of a
fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and a plywood-skinned wooden wing.
The Fokker F.VII B/3M had a slightly increased wing area over the A/3M, with
power increased to 220 hp per engine, while the F.10 was slightly enlarged,
carrying 12 passengers in an enclosed cabin. The aircraft became popularly known
as the Fokker Trimotor.
Role
Passenger & military transport
Manufacturer
Fokker
First flight
24 November 1924
Introduction
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 eight- to 12-passenger Fokker was the aircraft of choice for many early
airlines, both in Europe and the Americas and it dominated the American market
in the late 1920s. However, the popularity of the Fokker quickly waned after the
1931 crash of Fokker F.10 TWA Flight 599, which resulted in the death of Notre
Dame football coach Knute Rockne. The investigation revealed problems with the
Fokker's plywood-laminate construction, resulted a temporary ban from commercial
flights, more stringent maintenance requirements, and a shift to all-metal
aircraft such as the similar Ford Trimotor and later Boeing 247 and Douglas
DC-2.
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 9 May 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 transpacific flight from the continental United
States to Hawaii (c. 2,400 mi/3,862 km) in the Atlantic-Fokker C-2 Bird of
Also on 29 June 1927, Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen and two others flew the
first official transatlantic airmail in the civilian-owned C-2 America (NX206),
crash-landing off the coast of France on 1 July.
Lieutenant Colonel 'Dan' Minchin, Captain Leslie Hamilton and Princess Anne of
aviators to cross the Atlantic from east to west using a Fokker F.VIIa named the
St. Raphael. Their fate remains unknown.
James DeWitt Hill and Lloyd W. Bertaud made a failed attempt to fly from New
York to Rome in F.VIIa Old Glory when they and the aircraft were lost in the
North Atlantic 7 September 1927.
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.
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic on 17 June
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 1 to 7 January 1929. The purpose of this mission was to set a
flight endurance record using aerial refueling.
Specifications
Fokker F.VIIb/3m; Atlantic-Fokker C-2A
General characteristics
Crew: 2
Capacity: 8 passengers
Length: 47 ft 11 in (14.60 m)
Wingspan: 71 ft 2 in (21.70 m)
Height: 12 ft 8 in (3.90 m)
Empty weight: 6,725 lb (3,050 kg)
Loaded weight: 11,570 lb (5,200 kg)
Performance
Cruise speed: 92 kn (170 km/h)
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