Fokker F.XII

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Fokker F.XII
Passenger flight op Schiphol Airliner at Schiphol airport.jpg
Type: Airliner
Design country:

NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands

Manufacturer:

Fokker

First flight:

5th December 1930

Commissioning:

1931

Production time:

1931-1935

Number of pieces:

13

The Fokker F.XII was a three-engine airliner made by the Dutch manufacturer NV Nederlandsche Vendunguigenfabriek in the early 1930s. The machines, some of which were still in use after the Second World War, could carry up to 16 passengers. In addition to the eleven aircraft built in the Netherlands, two more were built under license in Denmark.

history

The Fokker F.XII was created at the request of the airline KLM for the connection to the Dutch East Indies . It should bridge the gap between the larger F.VIIb-3m and the F. IX close. The designers largely adopted the design principles of the F.VII. The first flight took place on December 5, 1930. In May 1931 KLM carried out the first test flight to Batavia .

construction

The F.XII was designed as a cantilever high-decker . The wings were made of wood, the fuselage received a tubular steel frame. It was powered by three Pratt & Whitney Wasp star engines , two of which were suspended under the wings. The first of the two aircraft built under license from the Danish manufacturer Orlogsværftet received Bristol Jupiter VI radial engines , the second improved Wasp engines and an additional landing gear fairing.

A closed two-man cockpit was available for the pilots. The cabin was designed for sixteen passengers. Most of the aircraft used by KLM within Europe had fourteen seats, while on the India route only four to six seats were offered, which were used as sleeping accommodations at night.

use

The eight machines delivered to KLM initially took over the route from Amsterdam to Batavia . The first scheduled flight took off on October 1, 1930. Ten days later, after 81 hours of flight, the plane reached its destination. Use on the India route ended in 1935.

From 1932, KLM also used the aircraft on European routes. One of these machines crashed on April 6, 1935 during a snow storm near Brilon .

In 1935 KLM sold four machines to the British airline Crilly Airways and another to the French Air Tropique . The last two F.XII of KLM came into the possession of British Airways in October 1936 in order to carry airmail from Great Britain to Cologne and Hanover. One plane crashed in 1936, the other was sold again in 1938 and scrapped in 1940.

Two F.XII were built for KLM's East India subsidiary, KNILM, and remained in service until the Japanese troops conquered Java in 1942.

The last F.XII built by Fokker came into the possession of the Swedish airline AB Aerotransport (ABA) in February 1932 , which operated the London-Paris-Amsterdam-Copenhagen route together with KLM. Svensk Flygtjänst acquired the aircraft in 1946 and used it for sightseeing flights until it was destroyed in 1949 in a hangar fire at Stockholm / Bromma airport .

The first license building was built in Denmark in 1933 and came into the possession of the Det Danske Luftfartselskab, DDL airline . The plane then served the route from Copenhagen to Berlin. In 1935 an improved version called F.XIIM followed for the same customer, which had a slightly higher speed. The last of these two machines was lost in an accident in 1947.

Passengers next to a Fokker F.XII on the Andir airfield, today's Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung

Used in the Spanish Civil War

The aircraft taken over by Crilly Airways served the route from London to Lisbon from February 1936. Since the Spanish authorities did not issue an overflight permit, the air connection had to be discontinued after a short time. The aircraft then came into the possession of British Airways.

In July 1936 they were sold to the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War . The seizure by the French police during a stopover in Bordeaux initially prevented the handover. Only a pseudo sale to Poland enabled the transfer to Spain, whereby two of the planes were lost while flying over the Pyrenees . The other two were converted into bombers.

The aircraft sold by KLM to the French Air Tropique, a front company of the Spanish Republicans, was also used as a bomber during the civil war.

Users

DenmarkDenmark Denmark

NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands

SwedenSweden Sweden

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 4th
Passengers 16
length 17.80 m
span 23.02 m
height 4.75 m
Empty mass 4350 kg
Takeoff mass 7250 kg
Cruising speed 205 km / h
Range 1480 km
Engines three air-cooled radial engines Pratt & Whitney Wasp C with 312 kW (424 hp) each

See also

Web links

Commons : Fokker F.XII  - collection of images, videos and audio files