Fokker F.VII

The Fokker F.VII, also known as the Fokker Trimotor, was an airliner produced in the 1920s by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, Fokker's American subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and several other companies under license. It was an airliner that could carry between 6 and 12 people, depending on the version, and it used a variety of engines and engine configurations; while the first versions had a single nose engine, most were produced with three engines.

The F.VII was an important airliner in the 1920s and 1930s; made in several versions, it was used for record breaking flights. An enlarged variant of the F.VII, the F-10, was involved in a famous aviation accident in 1931, leading to safety reforms in the USA. It was also used for an attempt to reach the North Pole, although there was a debate if it did reach all the way there: the aircraft was at least flown in arctic conditions in this attempt. Less controversially, it was flown in the first flight across the Pacific from Australia to the United States, and earlier it was used in flight from the United States to Hawaii.

In the 1930s, the aircraft began to fall out of favor as newer designs that were larger, faster, and more streamlined entered service. Some major variations on this design included the Fokker F-10, which was bigger and could carry four additional passengers, and the Fokker F.VIII, which omitted the central engine thus becoming a twin-engined aircraft. The Fokker F.VII was also produced by licensees outside the Netherlands including SABCA, Avia, Avro, and others.

Design and development

The F.VII was designed as a single-engined transport aircraft by Walter Rethel. Five examples of this model were built for the Dutch airline KLM. One of these aircraft, registered H-NACC, was used in 1924 for the first flight from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies.