Fokker F50
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-->The Fokker F50 is a small turboprop-powered airliner, designed as a refinement of and successor to the highly successful Fokker Friendship.
History
The Fokker 50 was designed after sales of the Fokker F27 "Friendship", which had been continually in production since 1958, were beginning to decline by the 1980's. Fokker management, notably Frans Swarttouw, decided that an aircraft with aeronautical and electronic updates from both the Fokker F27 and the Fokker F28 (the short-range twin jet for 85 passengers) was in order. Design of the Fokker F50 started in 1983.
Certification of the Fokker F50 (officialy known as the Fokker F27 Mk050) by the Dutch aviation authority RLD was successfully completed in 1987 after four years of design review and flight testing. First delivery was made to DLT of Germany. Production ended in 1996 aften the Fokker Aircraft Company went into liquidation. By the end of the program, 213 Fokker F50s had been produced. A Majority of these are still in operation service, as at the beginning of 2005.
Design
The Fokker F50, as the new design was called due to marketing reasons, was based on the stretched F27-500, but with a larger number of smaller windows in the fuselage and a two-wheel nose gear.
Basic construction of the fuselage, wings and empennage (tail) remained unchanged apart from strengthening the various sections where required. The wing was equipped with upturned aileron and wingtips, effectively acting as wing endplates or winglets.
The major design change from the Fokker F27 was in the engines, and in equipping the aircraft with an electronic flight and engine-management system. The original Rolls-Royce Darts in various marks of basically 1700 to 2300 HP was replaced with two more fuel efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PW124 powerplants of max 2500 HP, driving a 6 bladed Dowty Rotol propeller.
Compared to the Fokker F27, the Fokker F50 can carry around 50 passengers over a range of 2000 km at a typical speed of 530 km/h, a 50 km/h over the Fokker F27.
Specifications (F50 series 100)
General characteristics
- Crew: Two pilots
- Capacity: up to 58 passengers
- Length: 25.25 m (82 ft 10 in)
- Wingspan: 29.00 m (95 ft 2 in)
- Height: 8.32 m (27 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 70.0 m² (736 ft²)
- Empty: 12,250 kg (27,602 lb)
- Loaded: 18,600 kg (41,000 lb)
- Maximum takeoff: 20,820 kg (45,900 lb)
- Powerplant: 2x Pratt & Whitney Canada PW125B turboprops, 1,864 kW (2,500 hp) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 425 km/h (266 mph)
- Range: 2,055 km (1,284 miles)
- Service ceiling: 7,620 m (25,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: m/min ( ft/min)
- Wing loading: kg/m² ( lb/ft²)
- Power/Mass: kW/kg ( hp/lb)
Current operations
The following airlines or military operators currently fly the Fokker F50 in passenge or cargo roles:
- Aero Mongolia
- Aerocondor
- Air Baltic
- Air Central
- Air Iceland
- Amapola Flyg
- Aria Air
- Avianca
- Bluebird Cargo
- Crescent Air Cargo
- Denim Air
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Iranian Air Transport
- Kish Airline
- KLM Cityhopper
- KLM Cityhopper UK
- KLM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Mandarin Airlines
- OceanAir
- Palestinian Airlines
- PT Indonesion Air Transport
- PT Transwisata Prima Aviation
- PT. Riau Airlines
- SAS Braathens
- Singapore Armed Forces
- Skyways Express
- Skywest Airlines
- Sudan Airways
- SWE FLY AB
- Taftan Air
- Tanzanian Government Flight
- VLM Airlines
See also
External links
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