Fokker F28

Fokker F28

The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a short range jet airliner designed and built by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker.

Announced by Fokker in April 1962, production was a collaboration between a number of European companies namely Fokker, MBB of Germany, Fokker-VFW of Germany and Short Brothers of United Kingdom. There was also government money invested in the project, with the Dutch government providing 50% of Fokker's stake and the German government had 60% of the 35% German stake. In terms of responsibility for production, Fokker design and built the nose section, centre fuselage and inner wing, MBB/Fokker-VFW constructed the forward fuselage, rear fuselage and tail assembly, Shorts designed and built the outer wings. Final assembly was at Schipol Airport in Netherlands.

The first prototype PH-JHG first flew on May 9 1967, certification was achieved on February 24 1969. The first order was from German airline LTU but the first revenue-earning flight was by Braathans on March 28 1969 who operated five F28s. The aircraft layout with t-tail and two Rolls Royce Spey 550 engines mounted on the rear fuselage made it similar to its contemporaries the BAC 1-11 and DC-9. It can accommodate up to 65 passengers. When production ended in 1987, 241 examples had been built. The initial model -1000 was complimented with a -2000 with fuselage lengthened by 7ft 3in (first flown April 28 1971 allowing seating up to 79 passengers. Only 10 model 2000s were built before uprated Spey 555 engines and leading edge slats for improved performance were introduced on the models -5000 (short) and -6000 (long). Subsequently these were also superseded by the -3000 (short) & -4000 (long) still with the Spey 555 engines but increased wing span. The -4000 model was first flown on October 20 1976.