Flying Friendship - The Fokker F27 and Fokker 50
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2021
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Once a common feature in the world of aviation, the Fokker F27 and later Fokker 50 were the highly successful but often overlooked workhorses of the regional turboprop scene, but in their near 40 years of production these aircraft changed the face of global air travel, opening up new corridors to regions previously untouched by commercial flight.
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References:
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I was a maintenance engineer on the VLM-AIRLINES Fokker 50's for ten years, all i can say is, this plane was very well build and very reliable. A real workhorse that needed less maintenance than equivalent types.
yupp nice company
An F-27 was being tracked by ATC on radar when all of a sudden it vanished. No blip, no trace. The controller was beginning to sweat and was about to contact Emergency when the plane reappeared on the screen. The controller, relieved, was heard to say, "for a minute, I thought we'd lost that Fokker".
Excellent video. I worked for Air U.K. for many years back in the 80s. The Friendship was a wonderful aircraft. It served the airline well, made money, and was popular with passengers and crews alike. Sad that the F27 is so very rare now.
Ah yes... G-BNAL, G-BAUR, G-STAN, G-BHMW, and G-BHMX remember them fondly and night stopped them all at LBA.
I knew most pilots
My first flight was on an F27, with East West Airlines(Australia) in 1970, Inverell to Sydney. Took off on a dirt runway from Inverell! Had many flights over the years on the F27 and it could handle the most horrific turbulence (Sydney to Cowra 1976), never forget it!!! Fond memories.
it had huge windows too.
Air New Zealand operated the F27 for a number of years(now retired), after the name change from NAC, and still to this day remains one of the few I have not flown on, but would have loved too. Thanks for another awesome, and highly informative episode. Cheers from NZCH
NZ here too I remember the friendship well ideal for local conditions
My first commercial flight (as a teenager) was aboard an NAC Friendship from Palmerston North to Auckland around the early 1960’s. It’s departure was delayed for hours due to a technical fault! RNZAF Base Whenuapai was the Auckland home for NAC in those days. Years later I flew into RNZAF Base Ohakea on the Friendship while the runway at Palmerston North Airport was being resealed. Still recall the first Viscount and Friendship flights into PMR. 3 Viscounts and 2 Friendships at PMR (due to Rongotai weather closure) was a sight to behold. Fond memories of 50+ years ago.
@@sunsetlights100 yip, I miss the distinctive sound of the 27, ah so many nice memories of plane watching haha
@@BRABAZON49 Awesome mate, unfortunately I cant remember the viscount, just before my time I guess, altho I do miss the classic B732's high power takeoffs on NZCH short runway 27. Thanks for the reply mate
@@PaulR1200 yup loved those fokkers did few trips with the cousins under 10 unaccompanied all fokkers NAC it real maybe night been Akl to Blenhiem old air base terminal
The engine yea remember it as more whishing sound quite pleasant compared to regular commercial but he superseded props these days and excellent fuel economy jets now with the proprietary Higher air ratios less jet A fuel ... Trade secrets if u know what u mean.
My dads work fig was ground instrument tech at Auckland Airport kid brother and I lived the banks of green transistor gear all nice & clean air conditioner
High points for me @ the siblings downstairs instrument room by control tower ...up the lift it stars to the top control tower check green radars sometime get to run Dr perimeter of with Ted my dad airport carpool Toyota land cruiser ford falcon wagon both yellow & ofcorce Xmas party with Santa arrival on hovercraft good times love airports being around aviation for me sadly eyesight not high enough standard to get my ppl without the specs
ok nice to chat with u mate & chers
F27s were pivotal to regional Australian aviation in the 1960s-70s, I flew on them several times and had an Ansett bag from one for many years. I still remember the family cat meowing in the cargo compartment all the way to our destination on that flight! 😀
My family lived in Page, Arizona during the early 1960's and I remember the Bonanza Airlines F-27s coming through on their route. Loved the whine of the engines.
I flew on the Fokker Friendship many times as a child. I hate to burst your bubble, but they weren't primarily used on flights "in the outback" in Australia. Most were flying between capital cities and regional cities and towns. Two flights I remember were between Sydney and Cooma, as well as Sydney and Canberra. I think that was Ansett.
I flew many Sydney to Coffs Harbour flights and Townsville or Cairns to Gove on F27s and F50s. Also, F100s Adelaide to Moomba in the mid-80s on Santos daily company charter flights.
Melbourne to Burnie too as I recall
I flew the Fairchild F-27 and FH-227 here in the States. I was an instructor and check airman on the airplane. Very fond memories of that airplane. The whine of the Darts, the Dowty Rotol props and their locks, the sound of the air as the brakes released. Even all these years later I think I could get one started up. There was a whole lot of things that airplane wasn’t. It wasn’t new, it wasn’t fast and it wasn’t what I would call beautiful, but I dearly loved that old airplane. Thanks for a great video! Lots of memories.
Were you the check pilot on that Ozark Air Lines Fairchild FH-227 flight whereby the cockpit crew accidentally overflew the Sterling-Rock Falls (Illinois) airport and instead mistakenly landed at the Dixon, IL airport about 15 miles further east?
@@WAL_DC-6B No, I’m afraid not. I didn’t fly for Ozark. My company bought two of their FH-227B airplanes.
Bet it’s an interesting story though!
@@georgiathai4961 I kind of figured you weren't that check pilot. I can't recall where I read that story. It's probably somewhere on the internet as well. It was embarrassing for the crew, Ozark and especially that check pilot. Once on the ground at Dixon there was no place to turn the FH-227 around due to the narrow runway and I believe lack of taxiways. One passenger was from Dixon and had a relatively short trip home!
@@WAL_DC-6B At my conpany we had a crew land a Fairchild at the wrong airport in Illinois. Landed at Carbondale instead of Marion. One passenger lived there and wanted to get off the airplane right there! Like ya said, embarrassing for the crew, and even worse with a check airman on board.
@@WAL_DC-6B I remember when that happened so clearly. Hard to believe that’s been nearly 40 years ago. When I think about that I start to feel old.
I remember Bonanza Airlines turboprop aircraft at San Diego's Lindbergh Airport in 1967 with my Mom and Dad. My Dad flew a DC-6 piston prop aircraft with an FAA pilots license rating.
Thank You and God Bless,
Ludwig
I fondly recall the scream of the F27's engines during the 70s on infrequent visits to Napier airport. In those days, NAC ran the Friendships up and down New Zealand. It wasn't until the 80s that Air NZ took over from NAC. I remember the F27's being a noisy aircraft to ride in, and my ears always hurt during the initial ascent and final descent. The cheap lollies the air steward passed out didn't help much, ha ha. But, despite how noisy they were to fly in, and their ear-splitting scream on the ground, I still think of them with happy memories, part of an era of aviation history that is sadly gone now.
Back in the 80's I flew in Air UK's F27 several times. One was Stansted to Southampton return and another Stansted to Edinburgh return. That former journey was just a positioning flight (out Saturday morning and back Sunday evening) so that the plane could be used for flights from Southampton to and from the Channel Islands at weekends, but I found out you could book a seat on that service for just £10 (which included a beverage). So myself, my wife and son took advantage of that very cheap trip.
Air UK had services from England to Bergen, Norway as well, with the F-27. I remember a bright and sunny afternoon flight across the north sea. The F-27 was a familiar experience as much used by Braathen S.A.F.E, although at that time most of the domestic flights by Braathen had been taken over by F-28s and 737s. Good memories.
@@Ambrosius50 737 200s i hope :)
@@oldfatbastad6053 Yes, - 200s. But F-28 Fellowships were mostly used, except on the largest airports. Also a very nice plane.
A Dutch plane is a Fokker. Mud is "modder" in Dutch. So a Dutch plane that can land on bad airstrips is a....... :-D
Lol!
BAHAHAHAAH!!
Modder Fokker! Nice.
An interesting piece of information about this plane I heard from a former mechanic: the Dutch-built F27s and license built American Fairchild F-27s had nearly no maintenance commonality. Only the landing gear was interchangeable between the two aircraft. Everything else was different enough to require totally different parts and maintenance procedures. Very strange for a license-built plane that outwardly looks identical to the original.
To avoid certain US restrictions on foreign products manufactures alter things and use local parts.
The Hawker Sidley Harrier from the UK was also licensed to Mc-Donald Douglas later Boeing.
The UK GR versions Harriers differ also from the US AV-8 Harrier versions.
That’s not entirely true, both models had a lot in common as Fairchild was licensed to build this derivative by Fokker. I have worked on both in the 70s as an engineer, some component differences but pretty much the same design and systems. Also spent many years at Fokker as an airline technical rep for both the F50 & F100. I,ve held licenses on the F27, F28, F50. Now retired . Great aircraft and company.
That's similar to the bell 206 jetranger and OH58 kiowa even though they were both built by bell and have essentially the same appearance, they have a few significant differences in there equipment and drivetrains that all but eliminate interchangeability between the two
Such a great line of aircraft; Fokker himself was an Anti Nazi, a man of immense courage! We had the Fokker Friendships flying in New Zealand and we loved them! I have fond memories of the Fokker Friendship! New Zealand has a special relationship with the Netherlands!
As far as I know there is still an f27 delivering either "the press" newspaper or possibly mail for NZ post, was here in Nelson about 2 1/2 yrs ago, painted white. The F27's that were parked up at Auckland airport went to HARS air museum in Aussie. The F27 certainly had nice lines.
I flew numerous times on Mississippi Valley Airlines (MVA) Fokker F.27s back in the 1980s. The flights were always between Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Chicago's O'Hare Field. Yeah, miss the whine of those RR Darts!
Remember their lovely distinctive sound when the Aer Lingus ones flew over - into and out of Dublin, in the ‘60s.
Yep, the black box was developed in Australia
Fokker, black box…… I have heard it all by now.
This is yet, the best video about Fokker F 27 I've seen around CZcams. thanks for sharing.
Used to be flown on them by Aer Lingus between Glasgow and Dublin in the 60's. They replaced DC3's so you didn't have to walk up the hill to your seat. Beautiful aircraft.
This brought back happy memories of flying out of Heimaey in 1992 on a Loftleiðir Fokker 50 - the tiny airstrip on top of the island having been shrouded in low cloud since landing. Having been told the previous day by volcano-filming legend Villi Knudsen that a friend of his had been killed the previous year through crashing into the island in fog, I had distinctly mixed feelings when the cloud lifted slightly and the tannoy in the departure lounge announced that the pilot was willing to "give it a try". Fortunately the Icelandic pilot knew what he was doing and we got off safely - although the slight drop as we overflew the cliff edge at the end of the runway reminded me of an old-style aircraft carrier take-off!
I also flew from Reykjavík City Airport by F50 to and from Akureyri where the landing strip actually looked like an aircraft carrier, being built on landfill running parallel to the side of the fjord. As I recall, Loftleiðir were very proud of their new F50s, the inflight brochure drawing particular attention to the glass cockpit.
Really like the narration. I can practically hear the commas 👍
I imagine that TAA and Ansett's financial problems during the 1980's played something of a part in poor sales of later iterations of the Fokker 50, the F27 was a very familiar sight at regional airports in Australia from the 70's to the 90's
The 1989 pilots strike killed was the final nail in the coffin for the Ansett F27 fleet, they never returned to service after.
East-West Airlines got absorbed into Australian Airlines, too...they had an all Fokker fleet.
@@saxongreen78 East-West got taken over by Ansett.
@@PhysicsAirline Speaking of Australia, I have heard that in the 1950s Fokker approached the Australian aviation industry as partners to finance and produce the F27, and sell the aircraft in Asia and the Pacific. With the vision and foresight typical of conservative Australian administrations, the offers from Fokker were refused.
@@saxongreen78 Thanks, I was trying to think of the other Aussie airline that had them back then.
I was in Flight Service in the 70's through to 90's and worked several airlines F27/F28 fleet in the NT, SA, and NSW. They were an absolute workhorse, and until Ansett brought in BA146 aircraft had the monopoly on almost all of the Australian regional movements. Nothing better than the sound of the Dart spooling up!
100% of my air-travel experience has been on F-50s. The first flight being the one where I discovered, much to my surprise, that I was terrified of flying and the second and last being a 'I had to get home somehow' flight.
My father has a similar career as a flight passenger. He only ever flew somewhere once. And back ofcourse 😄
Amazing that both Mr. Fokker and the F27 which came many years after his death are always in the mind of aviation enthusiasts.
Great plane and great video! 👍👍👍
Very well researched and presented...what a superb aircraft... thanks for sharing..!!
excellent and well-researched video.
I flew in Fokker Friendships to and from Victoria Falls from Johannesburg in 1975 with Air Rhodesia. I remember some seats faced others with a table in between. Very nice flights they were, too. Thank you for this most interesting video.
Great video as usual, thank you very much. These aircraft are well known in my part of the world as you pointed out. Greetings from Montevideo, Uruguay🙋🏻♂️
I flew several times on a Fokker 50 and 100. Remarkable planes
I like the screaming sound of the Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops!
Dart's sound is a warm memory of my childhood, I lived close to the Cerrillos airport in Santiago, Chile, in the early 70's when LAN Chile had a fleet of HS-748. Then, in the 80's, Aeronor, another chilean airline had a fleet of Fokkers, then, in the 90's, Ladeco, another chilean airline, flown some Fokkers for a while ... the Dart's sound is unforgetable!!
Had a Flight on an F27 in 1979...Heathrow to Norwich...it was my first Flight ever..
was pleased to land at Norwich.....but did not know that the Plane had 'unfolding Reverse Thrusters!
It worried me for a moment seeing the Back of the Engine casing seemingly coming apart!!
It was a compact Aircraft with only a Curtain dividing the Cockpit from the main Passenger Cabin..
Got several hundred hous, flying the plane LN-SUE featured at 4:26 in the video, and about 6000 hours on F-27 and 5000 hours on F-50. Lovely aircraft to fly.
Smashed it mate! keep the vids coming! 👏👌🤙💪💯
I remember the Friendships well here in New Zealand. Great aircraft!
Yes, the F27 served regional areas of NZ well. I well remember flying in them, often under the captaincy of pilots I had met socially. They were a great replacement for the venerable DC3. The scream of the RR Darts was unmistakeable, but in many ways, not missed when one was often in close proximity to a taxiing F27. I still have a reasonable sense of hearing :-)
Love the Fokker 50. I remember flying aboard Philippine Airlines as a kid in the late '80s to the early '90s. Enjoyed the ride. It was smooth and quiet. I love this plane.
Bonanza Airlines........Piloted by Hoss Cartwright, perhaps? LOL
ahh yes, he had a green lawn :p
@@oldfatbastad6053 LOL
😲
Hoss could have been a pilot, except they couldn't balance the center of gravity.
I used to see these in Aer Lingus green logo flying in & out of the old Speke Liverpool Airport on the Dublin route in the 1960’s ..
Good video. Many thanks
I have very fond memories of the FK27 from the time when I started my aviation career, and later of the FK50. Both very pleasant aircraft with their pneumatic Dutch characteristics (air bleed boot de-icing among others). It was a personal heart pain when one of of our FK50s stalled and crashed during approach.
I flew one F27 in military spec from Valkenburg Naval Air Station to Stansted (and back the same day). The "seats" were just cloth on metal frames on the side of the plane. All was fit for parachute troops. I can't say it was a comfy experience. Very noisy too. But, it was my first experience with Virtual Reality training that day, 10 years before VR became available on the market. That made it worth it.
An interesting sidenote to the F-27 is the story of the Handley Page Herald. (wiki for the full story)
Having beaten the F-27 to the post-war DC3 replacement market, the Herald tells the story of the British aircraft industry in microcosm. Management incompetence and government indifference being just part of the sorry mix. Ironically the F-27 was powered by the Dart turboprop from Rolls Royce, which was finally adopted for the Herald, but far too late for the market.
I remember seeing Heralds all the time in Jersey, Channel Islands in the 1970s, including one hulk that had crashed at the airport and was used for rescue training on the airport perimeter.
As you say, the usual sorry tale of the British aircraft industry was written all over the Herald. Even after the commercial success of the pioneering, though technically imperfect Viscount, British aviation interests couldn't see beyond the idea of producing designs for the UK alone, usually with parameters defined by British societal concepts, rather than the world market and the economics of mass transport. And the decisions were usually made by the chinless, half-witted rent-seekers of the British upper class, who occupied the upper echelons of industry and planning. British innovation was unique, but that wasn't enough. Technical disasters aside, the pioneering DH Comet was always too small, since the UK only ever thought that the privileged would be able to afford air travel; the Trident was shrunk from a B727 competitor into a DC9 type, designed for BEA alone, but with three engines and worse economics than the Douglas; the V1000 was dropped then resurrected in the VC10, far too late to compete, and designed solely for BOAC's requirements, and once again with non-competitive economics. So not surprising that the Herald was originally conceived as a piston-engined aircraft, while ironically Fokker went for the British RR Dart, then the Dart-powered Herald came along when the horse had bolted, and even then it was an ultra-short haul aircraft designed for BEA without a thought to selling it to the world. It's a very sad story.
My first flight was in a BUIA Herald to the Isle of Man in 1970. Good times...
I remember seeing F-27's all over during the 70s. Loved the Hughes Air West "Top Banana" F-27's.
I flew the Fokker 27 1300 hours as First Officer in Cargo configuration and the Fokker50 as well. The F27 was very underpowered however a strong and reliable workhorse
I once got invited to sit in the cockpit of the Air Antwerp F50 on approach and landing at London City - it was a good little ship though I did chuckle at the Boeing GPWS callouts in place of the standard issue
The Fokker Friendship was very popular in Australia. It was used by Ansett and TAA.
Also Skywest.
The F27 had nice big windows & went way faster than the Douglas DC-3, so were very popular with the passengers.
I could listen to this for hours
The only thing the Fokker F27 and the Fokker-50 (Technicaly F27 Mark 50) shared was the basic fuselage. Everything else was new.
* The engines as the video states went from RR-Dart 6 and 7 to PW125 to PW127
* The power setting of both prop and engines where done by the push of a single button a bit like a modern jet.
* Pneumatic landing gear and brakes where replaced by hydraulic systems
* 28VDC systems where replaced by 115V AC systems
* Flight controls where much lighter due to design of balance tabs making the Fokker-50 a joy to fly unlike the dumptruck handling characteristics of the F27
* The new engines and easyer handling made an engine failure in takeoff a formality rather than an emergency
* All the electronics where replaced by then state of the art EFIS, smart and very easy to understand and operate computers.
* The Autopilot basicly whas the same but the flight mode control, flight director where verry well integrated into the EFIS and verry easy to use.
* Round windows replaced by squared (I wonder why)
* In fact all of this made the Fokker-50 even with multiple emergencies easy to fly even of one of the pilots was incapacitated.
Of course there also where disadvantaged
* The Fokker-50 like the F27 was slow.
I mean realy slow, Vmo was 220kts but at max operating flight level of Fl250 (if you ever managed to finaly get there) this dropped below 190 kts
* It was relative heavy making the competiters cheaper to run
* I was for the time highly advanced so fairly expensive
* As the video stated there where a lot competitors
Still i think both where great planes, a shame to see them disapear from the sky.
Then again i antique cars but still i drive around in a modern one.
Those are IAS numbers. TAS the F50 could cruise up to 270 knots.
@@F50Aircraft Always trust your instuments son 😁 There is no TAS clock above the wheel
@pascalcoole2725 Well that's what other F50 pilots have told me.
@@F50Aircraft I Calculated it (aprox based on Fl250, OAT -35C IAS 190, as at Fl250 Vne is 190 not 220 !) seems to be correct indeed.
@pascalcoole2725
Maximum operating limit speed (Vmo)
Up to 21.000 feet: 224 KIAS
Above 21.000 feet: Vmo decreases linearly to reach 206 KIAS at 25,000 feet.
But again that's IAS....at TAS it can get up to 270 knots which is still a reasonable good cruise speed for a turboprop of that size or turboprops in general.
You are good at what you do, keep it up.
The F-27 was a favorite sight of mine. A great aircraft!
I watched these coming in to Leeds Bradford when I was a kid.
The F27 was the plane that sparked a lifelong love of planes for me, Oman Aviation had a fleet, and we’d regularly fly from Muscat to the desert interior such as Marmul or Baja. As a kid I recall fondly the pilots inviting me up to the cockpit and even letting me have a go at the controls (naughty)
The first time I flew was in a Mohawk airlines Fokker probably a 227 from LaGuardia Airport to Keene , New Hampshire with my father . We left from the Marine Air Terminal . This probably in the mid 70’s and mom picked us up and drove us home to Putney , Vermont where we spent our summer vacations and weekends
Yes your Mohawk Airlines aircraft was an FH-227.
your edit is so simple but im so enjoy and like you voice is good and your microphone is so good
good narration is everything :)
I first flew on a Malaysian Airline System (MAS) F-27 in 1986 and got a visit to the cockpit. The Indian Malaysian captain who helped ferry them over from the Netherlands on delivery was very enthusiastic. Never flew on an F-50 sadly but have flown on F-100s equally great aircraft.
I flew on a Fokker 50 last year, it was for a work trip, and on the flight out I was the only passenger in the plane...
It was a domestic flight in Sweden.
14 minutes of footage… and not one shot of the Mountain Air Cargo F-27s flown for FedEx?
Largest operator of the Fokker in the early 2000’s. And my first “real” airplane.
I look at pictures of the flight deck now and I have zero clue how I managed to keep her upright!
Nice video. Brings back fond memories of my time flying between VCP-POA-EZE.
This takes me back. I flew the F27 200 & 500 series as well at the Fokker 50 (more precisely F27 Mk.50). These aircraft were built like a brick outhouses and were solid, reliable performers. Unfortunately when more modern designs came into the market they were hopelessly outclassed.
The Viscount and Vanguard were lovely looking aircraft…
Those Fokkers knew how to build aircraft.
The Viscount... 4 beautiful engines held together by a crap Airframe
@@tubester4567 BAHAHAHAAH!!
Ever seen the video of the 'Merchantman' arriving at 'Brooklands museum' ?
Here, where I live, it was affectionately called dog killer, due to the high-pitched noise of her engines.
I remember when Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) had 2 F-27's around 1970. They were N3M and N63M.
Used to fly from cairns to port more by. They felt very sturdy!
Flew in them a coupleof times in New Zealand in the early 70s..Tauranga--Wellington
My first flight was on a MAS F-27 flying from SZB to IPH. I do recall that the Darts' compressor scream was very loud. Funny side story: I was served orange juice on that flight, and threw up.... BEFORE the plane even took off!
Once the most common plane flying over the house I lived then near Maastricht Aachen Airport in the Netherlands, KLM used to have a subsidiary called NLM (Nederlandse Luchtvaart Maatschappij) which exploited regional air routes within the Netherlands and to neighbour countries.
They ceased operation somewhere in the 1990s because in such a small country like the Netherlands domestic air travel doesn't make sense, as you can travel from one end to the other within 3,5 hours by car, flights over the longest route, Maastricht to Groningen, took 20 minutes but adding 2 to 3 hours to get to and from the airport and check-in/check out there wasn't much advantage in total travel time.
Flights were also relative expensive compared to car travel, about twice as expensive as with a car with just one person in it.
The friendship was a class aircraft!
Used to fly to the channel Islands quite frequently on an f27, jersey European/British European. Giggles as a child, the name seemed rude lol. Some fantastic holidays.
Me too, it was the highlight of my holiday to Jersey, I live here now. (Love the SD1 username BTW!)
Fokker also built F-16’s under license for the Royal Netherlands Air Force in all 213 f-16A and F-16B where built at the Fokker factory until production ended in 1992
Oh the childhood memories
12:56 2 such countries where that has happened are Malaysia (swapped out the Fokker 50s for ATR-72-500s, and later the 600s) & the Phillippines (they fly Q400s)
I used to fly vlm f50 regularly between london city and amsterdam. Lovely old girl
Fokker is pretty fokking cool
From a pilot's point of view, they had a very comfortable pilot seat and felt very nice to fly. Unfortunately, they were short on power, (especially the early ones), those RR Darts were very noisy, and the pneumatic brakes and steering both took a lot of getting used to.
I believe the shortcomings were addressed on the F50.
I was a passenger, New Zealand 1970. The planes were red and white with NAC on the vertical stabilizer.
As a kid I flew a couple of times interisland here in Hawaii on F 27s operated by Aloha airlines.
Flew aboard the F-27 on Piedmont airlines several times. I thought them to be a good airliner. Piedmont had replace their Martin 404 airliners with the F-27.
Another great video on an obscure and not very well known series of aircraft
Wow, nice video 👍
First plane I ever flew on - F27 Friendship, Sydney to Corowa and back on an East West $10 joy flight.
Great plane.
It turns out that the C-47 is still in service in 2021 lol I'm not sure how many F-27s are still in service. It's a very lovely plane though. I love the Rolls-Royce turbo prop engines.
Oh yes, that inimitable whine of the Rolls Royce dart.
Remember this airplane well. Mohawk Airlines at Newark Airport, 1960’s.
Don't know the model, but I've ridden in a Fokker turboprop so I know they have done regional service in the NW United States. It was hot and the flight was so short that the A/C never really kicked in. That's what I remember about it.
Do you remember when BEA had a ticketing agreement route partner agreement in the 1950s on a flight that my Dad flew on, with Aer Linges flight from Manchester to Frankfurt. The aircraft must have probably been the dependable Fokker F-27 turboprop aircraft.
Cheers
I live close to a regional airport and have seen many f27 and f50 coming and going, most of them operated by NLM. i only ever have flown on an f50 NLM plane 1 time.
Tbh i found it to be kind of a primitive noisy experience after having travelled in 737's MD11's, Airbus etc.
But fun nontheless.
The Dutch government also used f27, f50 and f70 executive jet. Nowadays they use a Boeing 737.
i have flown in one of these fantastic planes
I always believe that in commercial aircraft industry, the project management is as important as the product itself. Fokker died because of this, and recently Bombardier. Fokker remains in commercial aircraft industry, as a supplier. But it will never get its glory back again.
Interesting Video it could have benefitted with mention of some smaller airlines -with photographs I noted that Iran operated 19 aircraft in their Military . In the UK Air Anglia operated a few as well as the Dart Herald a British equivalent As did British Midland , Air UK and LTU . All Nippon in Japan and Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan , Nigeria airways, SAS, and LTU to name a few. A great aircraft and much better comfort as a passenger that the ATR which has a smaller cabin and appears noisier.
They were so loud on the ramp; sort of a cross between a chirp and a scream.
the dart engine has a very high pitch scream the allison 501(t56) doesnt have. probably due to the fact that the dart is a centrifugal design while the 501 is axial flow.
Niki Lauda founded Lauda Air on these
Great vlog as always! The Fellowship is next?
HS748/Andover, similar aircraft with a long service life
Underpowered but still a fine aircraft. I flew in it with Ozark in the 70's.
Flew on Burma Airways F-27 mid-80s. Cheers!
Ruairidh, no one mentions the near identical HP Herald, surely their similarities can't just be coincidence?
It's "Hey-grrs-town" MD.
I say, old chap, you seem to have forgotten the Fairchild - Hiller FH-227 flown by Mohawk, Delta and many other airlines in North America. Perhaps this is what you meant by mention of the Fairchild F-227.