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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 3254.PDF
800 COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT SURVEY . . . Fokker F.27 Friendship The design of a DC-3 replacement was first considered by Fokker in 1950 and by September 1953 ideas had taken shape around the Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop. Prototype con struction was paid for by the Netherlands Institute of Aircraft Development and the first flight was in December 1955. Aer Lingus was the first airline to put the type into service—in December 1958. The Friendship is still in production and likely to remain so for many years to come. Orders placed in 1967 enabled the Nether lands company to announce that the aircraft had sold in greater numbers than any other European airliner past or present—a remarkable achievement for a company virtually without any home demand for its product. There are now seven basic versions of the F.27 produced by Fokker, and all are in production to special order. The Friendship programme is also notable as being one of the earliest examples of European-wide collaboration on a civil aircraft. Although the entire effort is funded and managed by Fokker, the French company Breguet is a major sub-contractor and builds large sections of the fuselage at its Biarritz factory. The British industry also accounts for a sizeable portion—engines, propellers, undercarriage, structural bonding, autopilot, wheelbrakes and much detailed equipment. The F.27 Series 100 is powered by the 1,715 s.h.p. Dart RDa.6 Mk 514-7 and is offered with three interior arrangements (for 40. 44 or 48 passengers according to seat pitch), all three with a total of 240 cu ft of baggage space at cabin level. There are no under- floor holds. The F.27 Series 200 has the more powerful RDa.7 Mk 532-7 engines, higher permitted operating weights and the same con figuration ; it is particularly attractive for operations in hot-and- high conditions. For mixed-traffic and all-freight operators Fokker offers the Series 300 Combiplane, which is essentially a Series 100 with a 91.5x70in outwards-opening freight door at the front end of the cabin. For operators with a quick-change requirement Fokker offers a system of floor rollers and pallets (including palletised seating) engineered by the Brownline Corporation. The Series 400 Combiplane is the mixed-traffic version of the Series 200 with the same facilities as the Series 300. The Friendship 500 was the first of the Fokker-made aircraft to have an increase in fuselage length—in this case by 4ft 11 in (com pared with 6ft 7in by Fairchild Hiller on the 227). This allows two more rows of seats and a fraction more baggage space. Up to 56 seats can be fitted in a commuter layout. The big side front cargo- door is standard, and the RDa.7 Mk 532-7 is the powerplant. The gross weight is the same as that of the 200 and 400 but zero fuel and maximum landing weights are increased to compensate for the higher empty weight. The big breakthrough for the new Series 500 (first proposed in 1966) came in July 1967 with the formal signing of an order for a fleet to replace the DC-3s and DC-4s of the French "all-weather" night postal service. The first Series 500 was delivered in May 1968. Production of F.27 variants by Fairchild Hiller in the USA has now ceased. F.27 Series 100 Orders: Aer Lingus, 7; Braathens, 8; East-West Airlines, 5; Icelandair, 2; Indian Airlines, 13; LTU, 2; Luxair, 2; New Zealand National Airways, 9; Philippine Air Lines, 17; Trans-Australia Airlines, 7; Turk Hava Yollari, 5; Corporate and Government, 10. Total, 87. F.27 Series 200 Orders: Aerotrasporti Italiani, 9; All Nippon Airways, 25; Ansett, 6; Airlines of New South Wales, 6; Mac- Garuda's first of eleven recently delivered F.27s FLIGHT International, 20 November 1969 Robertson Miller Airlines, 3; Queensland Airlines (now Ansett), 3; Balair, 1; DETA Mozambique, 3; DTA Angola, 3; East African Airways, 4; Korean Airlines, 3; Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, 8; Nigeria Airways, 5; Pakistan International Airlines, 10; Royal Nepal Airlines Corp, 1; Schreiner Airways, 2; Sudan Airways, 4; Swissair, 1; Trans-Australia Airlines, 4; Union of Burma Airways, 4; Corporate and Government, 4. Total, 109. F.27 Series 300 Orders: Icelandair, 1; KLM, 2; LTU, 1; Govern ment order, 9. Total, 13. F.27 Series 400 Orders: Aero Trasporti Italiani, 5; Air France, 2; Alia, 1; Ansett ANA, 2; Airlines of South Australia, 1 ; Ansett Mandated Airlines, 2; Condor Flugdienst, 2; Danish Aero Lease, 2; Garuda Indonesian Airways, 11 ; Gulf Aviation Company, 1; Iberia, 8; Indian Airlines Corp, 2: Luxair, 1; Pakistan International Airlines, 3; Sobelair, 1 ; Schreiner Airways, 1; Swissair, 2; Trans- Australia Airlines, 5 ; Union of Burma Airways, 2 ; Air Congo, 8; Nigeria Airways, 2; Corporate and Government, 20. Total, 84. F.27 Series 500 Orders: Air Inter, 10; ALM Dutch Antillean Air lines, 2; Sterling Airways, 1; A P Moeller (Maersk), 3; Korean Airlines, Ministere des Postes et Telecommunications, 12. Total, 32. Fairchild Hillcr F-27/FH-227 Orders: F-27 (early marks): 131. F-27J: Allegheny, 10. FH-227: Mohawk, 5; Northeast, 7; Ozark, 21; Paraense, 5; Pied mont, 10. General Aircraft Corporation GAC-100 Although this company is new to the commercial aircraft manufacturing business, the people behind it are very experienced in the technical aspects of the air craft to be built. There is also widespread interest in the specifica tion proposed. GAC is headed by Mr Lynn Bollinger, who in 1966 revived the late Jack Frye's company of the same name. Mr Bol linger is also founder and president of Helio—the makers of re markably STOL single-engined utility aircraft. The GAC-100 is a four-engined pressurised 36-seat transport designed, like the new DHC-7, to appeal to the commuter airlines serving the jumbo-jet generation of trunk-route aircraft of the 1970s. The GAC-100 is also mid-way in size between aircraft such as the Twin Otter and F.27, but has a superior fully factored STOL airfield performance, a higher cruising speed and normal airline standards of passenger comfort and baggage capacity. A technical novelty of the design is the high-lift system and associated lateral controls. Handley Page automatically opening slats extend over the entire leading edge, and behind them lie top-surface flow "intercepters" which are operated by the roll-control circuit (whenever the slats are extended) and are therefore expected to give increasingly precise roll control the higher the lift of the wing. Double-slotted flaps extend over the entire trailing edge. In addi tion, there are full-span lift-spoiler air-brakes. The overall layout of the aircraft is very much like a scaled-down Viscount. Work has begun on the first prototype, which should fly during 1970. with deliveries in early 1972. The Australian Govern ment Aircraft Factories in Melbourne are taking a share in the airframe construction, and several Australian operators have ex pressed an interest in the type. It is honed to sell the GAC-100 for less than $1 million (£415,000). Hawker Siddeley 748 Last of the three twin-Dart short-haulers to be launched, the 748 is now one of the most popular and the good sales prospects have continued. The principal selling point of the aircraft is its excellent short-field performance, and it has gained fpwfa
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