Update – Fokker 50 and 100 projects

The Friendship successor has been designated the Fokker 50 while the Fellowship replacement will be known as a Fokker 100 – both designations denoting in approximate terms the passenger capacity of each aircraft.

Fokker 50

This aircraft is basically a revamped Friendship. That in itself is not to suggest that it is little changed from the product we have grown up with in the past quarter century but more importantly, highlights the longevity of the original F. 27 airframe and aerodynamic design. Much work was undertaken on a new wing design for the F. 27 successor during the seventies using the latest available state-of-the-art CAD CAM equipment available and each time Fokker was unable to improve in any way upon the existing wing design.

The primary difference between the Fokker50 and the F. 27-500 is in powerplants, avionics and cockpit design. The Fokker 50 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney of Canada PW124 turboprops of 2150 shp which typically use 250/o less fuel per aircraft mile than the old technology RR Darts and additionally require less day-to-day maintenance. Being of modular design, major inspections and servicing can also be undertaken quicker and more cheaply than the Dart. Complementing the PW124s are advanced technology composite Dowty Rotol six-bladed propellers which will not only increase propulsive thrust but also eliminate most of the noise that has to many passengers been a real irritant with the current F. 27. Fokker has been spending much on their composite facility in recent years and the Fokker 50 will carry a higher proportion of secondary composite structures than current build F. 27s. Glass, aramid and graphite fibre reinforced fairings, engine intake nacelle cowlings, access doors, leading and trailing edges, dorsal fin and flight control surfaces and cabin floor are typical examples of how composites will be employed aboard the Fokker 50.

New engines and propellors have also meant a considerable boost in cruise speed, up some 35 kts to 287 kts which will also result in operator savings through typical sectors being flown in a shorter time. The overall design, which caters for up to 58 passengers in the high-density 30-inch pitch or more generally 50 passengers at 32 inch pitch, also features extremely large overhead baggage lockers being the equivalent of those found nowadays on 737 and 757 aircraft.

The flight deck has not gone unnoticed and a full EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrumentation System) will be employed in concert with appropriate analogue instruments as required. The new cockpit will reduce pilot workload, reduce maintenance overheads in the avionics area and provide a degree of information to the crew not currently available in the previous generation of cockpit displays.

Fokker are quoting a 1983 flyaway cost per aircraft of $US? million which places the Fokker 50 in a very interesting situation against the vast army of competitors it now faces in the nineteen eighties turboprop marketplace. Certainly, with more than 750 F. 27s in service with 177 airlines in62 countries, Fokker are at least in the box seat to sell their established customers this vastly upgraded and improved example of what is already internationally highly successful. First flight is scheduled for late 1985 with customer deliveries by mid-1986.

Fokker 100

Fokker hit upon a winner when they launched their Friendship project back in the fifties. The aircraft sold so well that it virtually swamped any competitor and was the epitome of the old cliche, ‘the right aircraft at the right time’. Following the sales success of the F. 27, Fokker proceeded with the development of a small twinjet which would initially cater for up to 60 passengers and could eventually be stretched to accommodate up to 85 persons. This was at the time when US giants, Boeing and Douglas, launched their 737 and DC-9 twinjets of around 80 to 100 seats initially and BAC in the UK were hard at work replying to the American challenge with the BAC 111. Fokker basically got this one wrong in the sales department, the DC-9 scooped the mass of first-generation orders due to its timing and size in addition to that Company’s willingness to produce different variants for particular customer needs. It took the 737 almost a decade to really get going while the BAC 111 sold in modest but consistent quantities.

The F. 28 Fellowship, while an excellent airliner, was just a little too small for many carriers though as the world discovered air transportation during the sixties. This same grassroots travel phenomenon that was propelling Friendship to stardom was relegating the larger jet-powered Fellowship to relative sales obscurity. Nowadays the overall Fellowship situation is happier, with more than 200 sold to date with many extra sales being generated in recent years through the efficient Mk 4000 model as currently operated by Airlines of Western Australia and East West. AWA, Air Niugini, Air New South Wales and the Department of Aviation also operate the smaller Mk 1000 version of the Fokker twinjet.

What has appeared to happen though is that the wheel has turned full circle and now with the release of the 100/107-seat Fokker 100, Fokker is poised to capture a similar travelling market as Douglas did back in the mid-sixties with their first generation of DC-9s. At present, there are more than a thousand DC-9-30s, BAC 111s and early model 737-1005 that will need replacing by 1990 for reasons of noise, age and high operating costs. By the turn of the century, this figure will have doubled as the 737-200s and DC-9-30s built through the seventies and early eighties become similarly aged and progressively inefficient to operate. The potential marketers vying for this relatively uncrowded market were McDonnell Douglas with the MD-90, an aircraft that really looked set to be a true DC-9-30 replacement and British Aerospace with the 146-200. Ironically, only days before Fokker announced the launch of the Fokker 100, MDC announced that they were discontinuing the development and marketing of both the MD-100 wide bodied trijet and the MD-90 twinjet of around 110 seats. While this writer still finds it difficult to fully understand the MDC decision to cancel entirely the MD-90 project I can certainly appreciate why the board of Fokker are now wearing wall-to-wall smiles!

In short, the Fokker 100 could, in time, do for the Dutch aerospace concern in the nineties what the Friendship did in the sixties.

So much for speculation, but what of the aircraft? The Fokker 100, like the 50, is a development of an existing Fokker design, in this case being a significant upgrade of the respected Fellowship MK 4000. The fuselage has been stretched fore and aft of the wing resulting in a cabin layout accommodating 107 one-class passengers at a comfortable 32-inch pitch. Mixed class configuration typically allows 92 passengers with 12 in First at 36-inch pitch and 80 in the economy at 32 inch pitch. The Mk 4000 centre wing torsion box has been retained but the leading and trailing edges (including control surfaces) have been redesigned for extra strength and aerodynamic efficiency. The span has been increased with the addition of new wingtip fairings. Again, composites feature heavily with the nose, nose wheel doors, floor panels, fuselage /wing fairings, flaps, engine nacelles, engine stub wings, speed brakes, rudder and the entire dorsal fin being constructed of weight-saving composite materials. The effective weight saving is in the region of half a tonne.

Like the Fokker 50, the 100 will feature a full EFIS cockpit in addition to a revamped interior featuring five-abreast seating, additional windows and enlarged overhead stowage lockers. The aircraft was designed not only for only multi-stop short-haul operations but also the low volume long sector route that is typified by AWA and EWA operations of their present Fellowships. The 100 retains the F. 28 speed brakes in addition to having reverse thrust capability.

The heart of the Fokker 100 is the Rolls Royce Tay powerplants.

The Tay combines the latest Rolls Royce engine technology, including a fuel-saving wide-chord fan, with the proven core of the RB183 Mk 555 engine which powers the present range of Fellowships. The RB183 has established an unrivalled record for reliability in service, with a basic-flight shutdown rate of less than 0. 02 per thousand hours. The RB183 Spey has also been used in a wide assortment of aircraft types ranging from the F-4M Spey powered Phantoms, Buccaneer strike fighters, Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, Gulfstream jets, BAC 1 1 1 jetliners and the new Italian/Brazilian AMX tactical fighter.

The new Tay’s wide chord fan is a scaled-down version of the fan developed for the RB211-535E4 engine designed for the Boeing 757, which is the most efficient of the Rolls Royce commercial engines. The Tay, which develops 13,500 lb thrust, has a new three-stage low-pressure compressor and a low-loss bypass duct based on proven RB211 engine experience.

The fan and low-pressure compressor are driven by an advanced technology low-pressure turbine. The high-pressure system is the same as for the RB183 Mk 555 Spey and incorporates a new low emission combustion chamber. The Tay is backed by more than four million hours of operating experience with RB183 engines in F. 28s alone.

Tay meets fully the FAR Part 36 Stage 3 noise requirements as well as complying with engine emission standards. Test running of the engine commences this August and certification is scheduled for July 1986. This more than meets Fokker’s objective of a Fokker 100 first flight in mid-1986 with customer deliveries commencing by Easter 1987. Fokker have signed for 100 Tay engines from Rolls Royce who have also got contracts on an additional 200 engines from Gulfstream Aerospace for their Gulfstream IV executive jet. Rated at 13,500 lb thrust, the Tay will use around 25% less fuel per aircraft mile than the early generation of JTBS.

Local prospects

Fokker have always been popular with Australian, and indeed regional, carriers. They have sold 63 Friendships to Australian operators and eventual Fellowship sales could exceed 20 aircraft. While TAA and Ansett are nowadays opting out of their propellor-driven fleets it would be short-sighted to suggest that either carrier will not at a later date for political or economic reasons re-enter the short haul market. Ansett, through its subsidiaries, still has a sizeable F. 27 fleet and will in the next few years have to make a decision as to a basic replacement for their ageing Friendships. Either they will opt for aircraft like the Fokker 50 and the BAe ATP or they will go for the smaller super comuters such as the ATR 42, Dash 8, Saab Fairchild 340 or Brasilia. On the other hand they may prefer a mix of aircraft, though whichever way they lean no doubt the Fokker sales division will not easily let such established customers defect to rival makes without good reason. The Fokker 100 on the other hand is currently being tagged as a DC-9 replacement for TAA. The possibility of TAA back trading its fleet of relatively depreciated Boeing 727-200s on new McDonnell Douglas MD-83s in concert with the Fokker 100 as a DC-9-30 replacement should not be dismissed, particularly since the surprise dropping of the MD-90 project. Ansett on the other hand are well and truly in the Boeing camp and look set to operate their 737-200s for many years yet, though in the long term they too will require an aircraft in the Fokker 100 class. On the growth side, both East-West and Airlines of Western Australia look likely Fokker 100 operators in the years to come. The new boy in town, Skywest, is also looking at jet equipment to challenge AWA and could be a potential Fokker 100 customer if a decision on either the F. 28-4000 or BAe 146 is not taken in the next two years or so.

Either way, Fokker with their two new airliners look set to be a major force in the lower levels of commercial aviation for many decades to come.