The Fokker F.70 and F.100 Regional Jet
1. Design Evolution:
Complementing the F.27 Friendship turboprop, the F.28 Fellowship was meant to provide pure-jet alleviation, greater speeds, and decreased block instances traditionally related to higher twins, such because the BAC-111, the DC-9, and the 737, to regional route operators. But, following the demand for increased capability in all markets, and in quest of to incorporate then-emerging technological advances, Fokker quickly envisioned a successor that may not simplest infringe on the standard, brief-range jet section, however change lots of its first era types.
Preliminary design research, precise P315, F.28-2, and Tremendous F.28, were undertaken in 1977 and had been based totally upon the F.28-4000-the absolute best capability and numerically most popular of the six versions, but featured a stretched fuselage for up to a hundred and fifteen passengers, a brand new wing, sixteen,500 thrust-pound engines, a Mach zero.75 cruise speed, and a 1,500 nautical mile vary. Supposed software dates, characterized via two-yr intervals, incorporated 1979 for the type's launch, 1981 for its first flight, and 1983 for its certification.
Even though powerplant development had been made because the preliminary de Havilland Ghost and Rolls Royce Avon engines had been offered, with the likes of the Spey and Spey Junior that respectively powered the BAC-111 and the F.28, the choice of sorts was once still very restricted, and this served as the greatest concern to a more modernized and impressive Fellowship successor.
Projected powerplants integrated an improved model of the Rolls Royce Spey, some other of the Pratt and Whitney JT10D, a scaled-down CFM-fifty six, and a proposed Rolls Royce RB.432. On the other hand, their producers were either reluctant to launch such engines or optimized them for plane with larger gross weights than Fokker was bearing in mind.
withIn the experience, these boundaries will have turn into alternatives, as a result of nonetheless-growing demand dictated even greater capacities-of about one hundred fifty passengers-on short- to medium-range routes, and a fuselage extensive sufficient for six-abreast, single-aisle train seating-or yet one more than the BAC-111, DC-9, or F.28 had provided.
Yielding to market demand, and buoyed by using new technology, 20,000 thrust-pound CFM56-three and RB.432 turbofans, Fokker elected to deviate from its 5-throughout seating same old and offer a sixth one with a brand new notion distinct F.29, which might enter the ranks of different 2d-era a hundred and fifty-seaters. Capability, double that of the F.28, was 138 at a 34-inch pitch or 156 at a 30-inch pitch, and range was foreseen as 1,700 nautical miles, despite the fact that its total configuration remained just like its smaller predecessor with two aft-mounted engines and a t-tail to steer clear of exhaust interference with the horizontal stabilizers. The primary flight used to be now slated for 1983.
Because the building prices of such an formidable mission had been beyond the economic viability of a small Dutch regional aircraft manufacturer, then again, program truth used to be contingent upon a link with a chance-sharing partner.
McDonnell-Douglas, in quest of to supply its own higher-capacity, advanced DC-9 successor with its projected, one hundred fifty-passenger Evolved Know-how Medium Vary ATMR-II suggestion, universal the Fokker supply and, combining it with the in a similar fashion configured F.29, devised the McDonnell-Douglas Fokker MDF-100, intended for two,000 nautical mile sectors with 153 twin-category, six-abreast passengers.
Even if the t-tail used to be retained, its two turbofans have been relocated and were now pylon-mounted below and beforehand of the excessive side ratio, supercritical wing.
Regardless of its technical deserves, it might handiest be launched if sufficient orders might justify its function, and on this case, none did, even after really extensive marketing efforts, in this case forcing cancellation of each the mission and the partnership in 1982, or three years prior to the evolved airliner's intended first flight.
McDonnell-Douglas in a roundabout way offered its stretched fuselage MD-eighty powered with the aid of refanned JT8D-209 engines and this, along with the Airbus A-320 domestic and Boeing 737-300 to -500 collection, saturated what would have been the ATMR-II's market.
Fokker, painstakingly mindful that technological advances had been eclipsing both its turboprop F.27 and pure-jet F.28 regional products, elected to apply its transient associate's lead via revising and enlarging its earlier offering.
Revisiting its F.28-4000-based totally P315 design find out about, it decided to incorporate advanced engines and techniques in a stretched-fuselage successor optimized for one hundred-passengers and consequently precise "F.one hundred," asserting this system, together with that of its subsequent-technology F.50 turboprop, on November 24, 1983.
2. Fokker F.one hundred:
Featuring a mild-alloy, fail-safe, sizzling-bonded fuselage 18.10 toes longer than the F.28-4000's, it provided, through composite building, a 900-pound weightloss, but retained its oval passenger home windows and tail-installed ventral air brake, resulting in a 106-foot, 7.5 inch long fuselage size and a 116 feet, 6 ¾ inch overall plane size.
Two lower baggage/cargo holds had been accessed via three starboard, upward-opening doorways.
The 17-level sweptback wings, with a ninety two-foot, 1.5-inch span and 8.forty three aspect ratio, used to be based upon the Fellowship's, however introduced revised major and trailing edges and a better vanguard chord to extend the high-speed buffet boundary and decrease drag. Incorporating totally powered, hydraulically actuated ailerons, double-slotted Fowler flaps, and five-panel lift dumpers ahead of them, it featured a 1,006.four-square-foot space.
The tailplane span was 32 ft, 11 ¼ inches.
The engine, the key to the plane, had now not been available right through Fokker's earlier, independent research. Designed for the Gulfstream G.IV trade jet, the Rolls Royce Tay, incorporating the excessive-power portion of the Spey Junior 555-which itself had powered the F.28-introduced a brand new low-pressure section.
Pylon hooked up to the aft fuselage aspects, the thrust reverser-outfitted Mk 620 turbofans, developing 13,850 kilos of thrust, were fed by 1,274 US gallons of gas carried in major wing tanks.
The plane used to be ground-supported by a twin-wheeled, hydraulically actuated, tricycle undercarriage.
Access was once provided by a forward, left, manually operated, outward-opening, get away slid-equipped passenger door or optionally with an electronically-powered, out- and downward-opening, lighted airstair, which incorporated retractable handrails and a foldable backside step.
A galley servicing door was once located on the ahead, right aspect, throughout from it, whereas 4 plug-kind, inward-opening emergency exits have been positioned over the wing.
The two-pilot glass cockpit featured two reclinable, lap belt- and shoulder harness-equipped seats, which have been provisioned with thigh and lumbar helps and were horizontally and vertically adjustable. A 3rd, wall-stored observer's seat was located in the back of the pilot's.
The principle instrument panel, subdivided into captain's, heart, and first officer's sections, featured duplicated primary and secondary struggle contraptions, although standby struggle devices have been singularly located on the captain's side and the gasoline totalizer and brake gadget indicators have been put in on the first officer's facet.
The six main instrument panels of the Collins digital flight instrument gadget (EFIS) consisted of two major flight displays (PFDs), two navigation displays (NDs), and two multifunction show devices (MFDUs). The former two equipped flight and navigation information, while the latter encompassed engine parameters, alerts, approaches, and messages.
The heart panel supplied engine indication and combat warning machine displays, along with landing equipment controls and indicators.
The pedestal sported the engine thrust levers, flap and trim handles, speed and parking brakes, the stick pusher, and the flight administration machine (FMS).
Different cockpit avionics incorporated a digital aircraft flight keep watch over and augmentation device (AFCAS) for category IIIA computerized landings, a twin-channel full-flight regime autothrottle device, an ARINC 702 twin flight administration machine, an ARINC 706 dual digital air data machine, twin radio altimeters, weather radar, dual ARINC 709 distance measuring equipment (DME), dual ARINC 710 instrument landing programs (ILS), and dual ARINC 711 VORs with marker beacon receivers.
The cabin, carrying a "new seem" interior, was once standardly configured with two electronically-powered, potable water-provisioned galley units, two lavatories, two garment closets, and enclosed overhead storage compartments for hand luggage.
Blended class preparations included 12 4-abreast first class seats at a 36-inch pitch and 85 five-abreast train seats at a 32-inch pitch, or a virtually even ratio of 55 industry to 50 financial system seats. Single-category lodging, at a 32-inch pitch, totaled 107.
Plane methods incorporated two independent hydraulic programs for nostril wheel steerage, brake, undercarriage, and flight floor actuation; an AiResearch pressurization and air conditioning system; an AiResearch pneumatic device; an AiResearch thermal anti-icing device for the wings and tail; and a Garrett GTCP36-150RR auxiliary energy unit (APU), operable at altitudes of up to 35,000 ft.
3. Flight Test Software:
Despite the fact that the airplane's avionics had been tested on an previous F.28, the combat test program employed two stretched-fuselage F.100-standard airplane, the first, registered PH-MKH, flying on November 30, 1986 and culminating, after a 2.5-hour inaugural flight, with the first computerized manner and flare for a touch-and-go after this type of maiden operation.
Accumulating 150 hours, it used to be joined by means of the second prototype, PH-MKC, which first flew on February 25 of the next yr, and each have been subjected to huge climactic and operational geographical regions, including water ingestion tests in Cranfield, runway performance checks in Granada, sizzling weather exams in Tunis, and icing assessments in Norway, sooner than ending their eleven-month, 1,one hundred-hour, 1,500-landing software. The only considerable anomalies uncovered have been these involving the brakes and the thrust reversers.
Dutch RLD and US FAA sort certifications had been granted, respectively, on November 20, 1987 and May just 30, 1989.
Retrofitted with 15,100 thrust-pound Rolls Royce Tay Mk 650 engines, prototype PH-MKH first flew on June 8, 1988 and was licensed with them on July 1 of the next year.
Performance data diversified in line with certainly one of three gross weight choices: same old, intermediate, and high. Powered via 13,850 thrust-pound Tay Mk 620s, the primary supplied a 95,000-pound most take off weight, an eighty five,500-pound maximum touchdown weight, and a 1,484 statute mile vary with 107 passengers and baggage. The second, coupled with the 15,one hundred thrust-pound Tay Mk 650s, respectively equaled 98,000 kilos, 88,000 kilos, and 1,784 statute miles, while the 1/3, once more with the uprated turbofans, have been 101,500 kilos, 88,000 kilos, and 1,933 statute miles. The addition of a 984-US gallon center gasoline tank, to be had as of 1993, increased whole capacity to three,531 gallons.
4. Manufacturing:
Although F.100 last assembly occurred at Schiphol Oost, in Holland, airplane parts had been manufactured by Shorts, of Belfast, Northern Eire (wings), MBB of Germany (fuselage sections and the tail), and Dowty Rotol (the undercarriage).
5. In Service:
Whereas Fokker estimated that the F.28 would turn out to be the biggest plane in a small airline's fleet, it conversely estimated that the F.a hundred would develop into the smallest airplane in a large airline's fleet. Their prediction proved accurate.
Swissair placed the launch order for eight plane, along with six options, in July of 1984, and these had been adopted with the aid of orders and options for ten and five from KLM in May just of 1985 and 20 and 20 in July by means of USAir, the latter enabling Fokker to penetrate the all-necessary US market. By the point that the 2nd prototype had flown in 1987, orders and options had totaled 178.
The most important order, then again-and the 2d in the American market-used to be for 75 firm and 75 optioned airplane placed through American Airways itself in March of 1989, which sought to interchange its Boeing 727s and its European regional jet BAe-146 rival, got all over the AirCal buyout, with the type.
USAir took delivery of the primary Tay 650 model on the identical day that it was once certified, on July 1, 1989.
By way of the end of that 12 months, 28 airplane had been produced and the order ebook counted 382 by means of the beginning of 1990.
Other major operators integrated Air Littoral, Air UK, British Midland, China Eastern, Garuda Indonesia, Mexicana, Portugalia, Sempati Air, TAM Brazilian, Iran Air, Korean Air, Midway Airlines, TAT European, Deutsche BA, and Transwede.
A typical inter-European F.100 flight was sampled in June of 1994 with Swissair, which had at first taken delivery of the kind on February 29, 1988 and had inaugurated it into provider two months later, on April 25, changing its first-technology DC-9-30s.
Fashioned on March 26, 1931 on account of the Ad Astra Aero and Balair merger, it inaugurated Lockheed Orion specific route provider from Basel to Vienna with intermediate stops in Zurich and Munich, working it yr-spherical, as opposed to its preliminary, summer season-simplest schedule, 4 years later.
Douglas aircraft facilitated development and route device enlargement with DC-2 and, with the aid of 1936, DC-3 acquisitions.
World Conflict II, as had happened with all European carriers, resulted in a service suspension-on this case during the six-year duration from 1939 to 1945-however Swissair speedy linked the continental dots with wings thereafter and, two years later, was special Switzerland's nationwide airline.
Transatlantic service, to New York, commenced on May 2 of that yr with the delivery of quad-engined DC-4s and the route become a scheduled one in 1949. It was served by way of larger, longer-range DC-6Bs two years later.
North American service used to be mirrored by using that to its southern counterpart all over the early-Fifties, with an initial Zurich-Geneva-Lisbon-Dakkar-Receife-Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo route inaugurated on May 27, 1954, and extensions had been made to Montevideo and Buenos Aires three years later.
Its European network, operated by using an increasing number of developed tools, noticed provider with Convair CV-240s in 1949 and CV-440 Metropolitans in 1956, and stretched wings, actually, carried passengers across the Atlantic on extremely-lengthy-vary DC-7Cs. The type not handiest facilitated a rise in the collection of nonstop routes served, but paved the way to a 1957 extension to the Some distance East, albeit on the rest however a direct routing. Departing Zurich, the plane touched down in Geneva, Beirut, Karachi, Bombay, Bangkok, and Manila earlier than terminating in Tokyo.
So in style was once it, alternatively, that a 2nd route glide, from Zurich to Hong Kong and Tokyo, used to be quickly introduced.
Wing-installed propellers quickly yielded to nacelle-encased pure-jet engines, initial transcontinental and European tools respectively including DC-eight-30s and SE.210 Caravelles. Mustang-performing Convair CV-990s facilitated enlargement to Africa-namely to Accra in Ghana and Lagos in Nigeria-on May 2, 1962, and its final quick- to medium-range European and North African, Caravelle-replacing workhorse changed into the DC-9, which first regarded in Swissair livery with the 1966 supply of its unique DC-9-15. It used to be adopted by way of the -30 and -50 and, within the course of, the carrier changed into the 1/3 all-jet European operator in 1968.
It entered the widebody generation in 1971 with the acquisition of 747-200Bs and the kind was supplemented by means of six intercontinental DC-10-30 trijets.
In 1977, it became the co-launch operator, with Austrian Airlines, of the DC-9-eighty one (later redesignated MD-eighty one), placing a 15-agency and five-optioned order, and taking supply of the stretched twin three years later.
Intended as the spine of its short- and medium-range European and North African fleet, it was once too large for the thinner sectors over which its final Stage Two DC-9-30s and -50s have been operated, and the SFR 450 million aircraft alternative application for Fokker F.100s, which incorporated reserve engines, spares, and a simulator, gave it an entirely Stage III-compliant fleet.
Accommodating seven fewer passengers than its DC-9-30s, the F.100, in a dual-type, 84-seat configuration, had a 2,200-kilometer range with most gasoline, payload, and one ton of cargo, and was thus perfect to segments outside of its major traffic arteries. On account of its size, it was additionally used in different capacities, such as providing extra frequency throughout off-height (midday) classes and inaugurating new routes that have been later operated through larger MD-81s after sufficiently stimulated traffic had merited their dimension.
Powered by using Rolls Royce Tay 620-15 engines, the Fokker F.one hundred presented a digital cockpit with electronic and multi-channel displays and incorporated weight-decreasing composite material in its development, and used to be viewed as a quieter, extra gas efficient, and evolved regional jet replacement.
Certainly, the 1,100-hour flight check software had established that it supplied a three-p.c decrease gasoline discount than expected-or 15 % lower than that of the DC-9-30 it changed-and an eighty two-decibel noise emission-or ten decrease than that of the DC-9-30 and 15 decrease than that of the DC-9-50.
Swissair's ten F.100s, operating in registration from HB-IVA to -IVK (with -IVJ neglected), were part of a 61-robust, five-type, twin-, tri-, and quad-engined fleet from four European and US manufacturers with a regular, 7.8-yr age, and it included 24 MD-81s, five A-310-200s, five A-310-300s, 12 MD-11s, and 5 747-300s, over and above the Fokkers. Because the sixteenth biggest IATA and seventh largest European service, Swissair served a 320,594-unduplicated kilometer community, which included 116 locations in 68 nations on 5 continents.
In 1993, it had conducted 219,629 flight hours (a 5.eight-% increase over the yr-ancient times) and carried over 7.eight million passengers (a four.7-p.c raise) and nearly 268,000 heaps of cargo and mail (a 9.5-% increase).
Nosed into Gate Two at Geneva's Cointrin Global Airport under the intense midday blue on that June 1994 day, plane HB-IVH "Stadel," carrying its dark brown fuselage trim and red tail, was once ready for its 748-mile sector as Flight SR 406 to Copenhagen, the primary of a couple of Swissair t-tails being serviced for its midday bank of departures. The others, all MD-81s, had been used on Switzerland-Denmark routes right through height occasions.
Despite its present unique stature, the eighty four-passenger F.one hundred vied, at different occasions, with the eighty two-passenger Avro World RJ85 operated by means of subsidiary Crossair.
Wearing a conservative, tan and brown décor, with horizontally-patterned seat upholstery and equally patterned fabrics that lined the sidewalls, lavatory doors, and the overhead storage booths, Swissair's twin-classification configured F.100s featured a ahead, left lavatory and, throughout type it, a dual-unit galley, and accommodated 28 business classification passengers in five 4-abreast rows and fifty six economic system class passengers in ten five-abreast rows. An aft, left, twin-unit galley, with its own carrier door (and giving it an MD-87 inside look), used to be equipped with three ovens and occasional makers and two full-dimension carts. Two aisle-opposed toilets were installed in the extreme tail.
After the flight plan and the standard instrument departure (SID) from Runway 05 had been entered into the flight administration system in the cockpit, the engines have been started with the aid of first urgent the beginning swap of the quantity two turbofan and then repeating the process for the #1 engine after its N1 revolutions had spooled as much as fifty one p.c.
Disconnected from the towbar after pushback at 1220, the F.100 initiated its taxi roll with a throttle development and used to be advised to observe a fellow Swissair MD-81-whereas coincidentally trailed with the aid of every other Scandinavia-certain twinjet, an SAS DC-9-20-during which the taxi checklist used to be accomplished.
Turning on to the runway with assistance from the nostril wheel steerage tiller, and holding its flaps in the neutral position on account of its gentle load, plane HB-IVH, nudged into preliminary acceleration, settled into its take off run with a full throttle advancement after positive energy had been centered, eating the concrete as its V1 and rotate speeds were carried out.
Retracting its undercarriage after a good climb fee had been dependent, the t-tailed regional jet settled right into a 2,500-fpm ascent charge over the turquoise, sun-glinted floor of "Lac Lemon" with its distinguished, water-cascading "jet d'eau," surmounting the city of Lausanne.
The black and green edges of the Alps receded beneath the starboard wingtip and, as the altitude elevated, its eternally fleece-white peaks triumphantly rose toward the deep blue tropopause. Scattered, cotton-resembling nimbus islands, seeming to waft atop their peaks, created a corrugated plateau.
Like a window into the sky, the electronic flight instrument device provided a full view of the aircraft's parameters, the main flight show wearing an artificial horizon, a price-of-climb bar, and pace and altitude tapes, and the navigation display indicating heading and distance to waypoints.
Lunch, served on china and preceded by way of cocktails and a small tray of almonds and pretzel sticks, incorporated white meat turkey and encrusted salami slices, dill potato salad, a creamy carrot salad, French cornichons, hot white and wheat rolls, with butter, from the basket, 187-ml bottles of pink or white wine, tartlets of pastry cream, pineapple slices, cherries, and whipped cream, espresso, and Swiss chocolates.
Swissair's monthly, trilingual (French, German, and English) inflight magazine, Swissair Gazette, was once to be had in all seat pockets.
Maintaining the type's 35,000-foot provider ceiling, the Tay 620-15 powered twinjet adopted its basically northerly heading, passing over Freiburg, Karlsruhe, the Rhine Valley, Frankfurt, Kassel, Hanover, and Hamburg in Germany, and then traversing the Baltic Sea towards Denmark.
Copenhagen was reporting overcast skies and almost half of the temperature, at eleven levels Celsius, as Geneva.
Boring into dense cloud with its bulleted nose, the airplane deployed its ventral airbrake, enabling it to think a sharp, but controlled descent.
Contacting the tower and beginning its landing guidelines, Flight 406 overflew the Navy blue, whitecapped Baltic, the runway pattern of Copenhagen's Kastrup World Airport passing beyond its left wing.
Cruising over felt-inexperienced topography and banking left to its ultimate method heading, the F.100, now below a silver cloud ceiling, extended its double-slotted Fowler flaps during the eight- and 15-level positions over another gap of water prior to unleashing its undercarriage into the slipstream and then further deploying its flaps to the 25- and 42-stage positions. Its spoilers were armed. As if attempting to counteract a ballooning parachute, it opened its throttles.
Assuming a decidedly downward pitch, it as soon as once more intercepted the coast, the runway inching toward the windshield, as a computerized voice provided a hundred-foot-interval altitude calls: 500… four hundred… 300… 200… a hundred…
As it reduced power to initiate its flare, the now ten-foot-interval calls commenced: 50… 40… 30… 20… 10…
Squatting, like an animal, on its hind leg major wheels, the twinjet snatched the runway with two mushrooming smoke puffs, and deceleration, to 60 knots, accredited transfer of its nose wheel steering back to its tiller.
Contacting Kastrup Ground Control, the aircraft used to be given taxi directions, ultimately inching down the ramp information line to Gate 26, abreast of an identically configured SAS DC-9-20 t-tailed twin at 1430.
6. Fokker F.70:
Despite the fact that the F.one hundred used to be a technological success and fulfilled the sub-a hundred and fifty-seat, brief- to medium-range niche with an advanced, gasoline-environment friendly design, it had eclipsed the area of interest that had spawned it-specifically, that of a 70- to eighty-passenger F.28 replacement-however market research still printed the need for such an aircraft.
To fill the hole between its F.50 turboprop and present F.a hundred, Fokker eliminated a single, ahead and aft plug from the latter's fuselage, decreasing its length through 15.2 ft to provide a new a hundred and one-foot, 4 ¾-inch overall size for lodging of seventy nine single-classification passengers at a 31- to 32-inch seat pitch. One of the vital two overwing emergency exits was eliminated and its usual configuration entailed a ahead galley and an aft lavatory.
Powered via thirteen,850 thrust-pound Tay 620 engines, and offering, in parallel, the three standard, intermediate, and high gross weights of the F.one hundred, the plane featured the following maximum payloads, take off weights, landing weights, way speeds (on the most touchdown weight), and tiers (with 79 passengers and baggage): same old weight-20,516 kilos, eighty one,000 kilos, 75,000 pounds, 136 mph, and 1,243 nautical miles; intermediate weight-22,016 pounds, eighty four,000 pounds, 79,000 pounds, 139 mph, and 1,628 nautical miles; and high gross weight-24,016 pounds, 88,000 pounds, eighty one,000 kilos, one hundred forty mph, and a pair of,117 nautical miles. The latter two weights were coupled with non-compulsory gas tank capacity increases.
Unique the F.70, the plane received a launch order for ten from Indonesia's Sempati Air, sparking the program's launch in June of 1993 and with the aid of April of the next 12 months, orders had elevated to 29, along with 5 choices, from Air Littoral (5), British Midland (five), the Ford Motor Company (one), Mesa Airways (two), the Netherlands govt (one), and Pelita (5), over and above the Sempati totals.
First flying on April 2, 1993 after F.100 prototype PH-MKC was once modified to this usual, it amassed 436 hours all the way through its 18-month flight check software and was subsequently joined through the primary manufacturing plane, which logged an extra 20 hours in the air. Both Dutch RLD and FAA kind certifications were granted on October 14 of the following yr. The Ford Motor Company, specifying a corporate model with seating for 48, took supply of the first F.70 that month, while Sempati Air got the first airline-usual airplane on March 9, 1995.
7. Fokker F.130:
Supposed because the 1/3-and greatest-version in Fokker's regional jet product line for routes requiring capability past that of the preliminary F.a hundred, the proposed F.130, with a 20.5-foot fuselage stretch and the addition of an aft, port passenger door, would have had a 136-foot, 11 ¾-inch overall size, and would have employed a 4.eleven-foot wingspan elevate attained by means of root plugs. The brand new span would have been 102 toes.
A 128-passenger blended-category association would have integrated 12 four-abreast seats at a 36-inch pitch and 116 seats at a 32-inch pitch. Single-classification accommodation would have topped out at 137.
With a 34,430-pound maximum payload, the elongated airliner would have had a gross weight of between 122,000 and one hundred thirty,000 kilos and a most touchdown weight of 113,000 pounds. Vary, with 137 passengers and their baggage, would have been 1,956 miles, although optionally higher weights would have increased this to 2,721 miles.
Whereas the F.70 served as a next-generation replacement for the BAC-11-200 and the DC-9-10, and the F.one hundred did the same for the BAC-111-500 and the DC-9-30, the F.a hundred thirty will have served as a DC-9-50 and 737-200 successor.
Despite the fact that wind tunnel testing commenced in June of 1991, and aerodynamic concerns proved no crisis, commercial ones did. The Fokker F.a hundred thirty was once to not be-nor was once Fokker itself, as changing financial stipulations and poor US exchange charges forced the venerable airplane manufacturer that also bore founder Anthony Fokker's name to declare chapter in March of 1996, effectively ending production of its F.50, F.60, F.70, and F.a hundred regional airliners.
Of the 283 F.100s built, the remaining, registered PT-MRW, used to be dropped at TAM Brazilian Airways on March 21, 1996. And, despite promising gross sales potentialities for the F.70, which was operated by using major carriers comparable to Alitalia, Austrian Airways, British Midland, KLM, and Vietnam Airlines, best forty eight rolled off the production line earlier than it was closed down, the remaining, registered PH-KZK, brought to KLM Cityhopper on April 18, 1997.
8. Rekkof Restart:
Of the numerous proposals that tried to salvage Fokker Plane, the Rekkof Restart one– whose founder and managing director, Jaap Rosen Jacobsen, was once also head of Belgian regional provider VLM–gave the impression the most promising. Financed by a mortgage from a Swiss belief and taking its title from the backwards-spelling of "Fokker," the challenge, with an supposed, 400-individual team of workers, deliberate to produce 24 F.70s and F.100s once a year, and, via the end of 1998, had accumulated orders, memoranda of understanding, and letters of intent for almost this amount.
Although it had been expected that Rolls Royce would proceed to supply the engines, subassemblies would now be furnished by way of different suppliers. Rekkof itself, Eurocopter Deutschland, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke, and Aircraft Services Lemwerder, for example, would build fuselage sections, and Aerostructures Humble, replacing Shorts of Belfast, would now present the wing. SABCA of Belgium would manufacture the tail part and the horizontal stabilizer.
Primarily Based essentially upon Boeing forecasts, demand for 70-seaters was viewed as 1,331 and for a hundred-seaters 2,164 through 2017. Having already captured 29 percent of the market, Fokker/Rekkof believed it could sell as much as 332 F.70s and 432 F.100s, and saw the following advantages of restarting the production line as opposed to designing an all-new aircraft.
Since the design was already based, no new construction costs would have been incurred. In comparison with the original manufacturing line, the Rekkof process would have presented a 30-percent increase in meeting effectivity, only requiring 400 employees to fabricate the 24 airplane per year, and, with the entire instruments and machinery in place, the line will have been reinitiated with little greater than an inspection and a flip of the swap, facilitating deliveries by means of the spring of 2000–or six months sooner than the emergence of doable opponents, such as the Bombardier CRJ-700, the British Aerospace RJX, and the Dornier Do-728JET. (Handiest the previous, within the experience, was once ever constructed.)
With the Fokker JetLine's personal evolved features-together with its Rolls Royce turbofans, wing, and all-glass cockpit-it was once however regarded as present to any technological options these airplane could have offered, as expressed with the aid of Rekkof airPlane itself. "There’s an evident demand for plane within the section 70-ninety seats," it proclaimed. "Furthermore, the current operational fleet of Fokker 70 airplane is proof that there is no aircraft as of late that may exceed its overall product traits."
However, the longer Rekkof delayed its relaunch because of unfavorable financial stipulations, the extra those "as of late" advantages eroded, and changing market requirements quickly necessitated better-capacity designs, prompting it to eventually focal point on the unbuilt F.a hundred thirty.
But, as the primary decade of the twenty first century unfolded, so, too, did new competitors within the form of the Bombardier CRJ-900 and -a thousand and CS100 from Canada, the Embraer E-one hundred seventy to -195 sequence from Brazil, and the Antonov An-148 and -158 and the Sukhoi SSJ-100 regional jet from Russia, causing what would have been a still-powerful, principally unfilled market at the dawn of the century to have change into a saturated one in 2015, and leaving the resurrected Fokker JetLine nothing more than a faded vision.
High-Stage NSA Official Tied To Husband's Personal Alerts Intelligence Business, Has A 2nd Industry That Owns A Plane (Techdirt)
Buzzfeed's Aram Roston has uncovered extra proof linking the NSA's SIGINT (indicators intelligence) director to a variety of personal contractors identified to do business with the US executive — most likely even the company itself.
Roston prior to now exposed the close ties between Teresa Shea's position and her husband James' enterprise, DRS Sign Options, a company interested in "SIGINT programs." Not most effective that, however trade information indicated that James Shea it sounds as if runs Telic Networks, another SIGINT-targeted industry operating out of their place of birth (Ellicott City, Maryland).
Understand that, neither Teresa Shea, her husband, her husband's enterprise, nor the NSA itself have supplied anything else in the way in which of comments on this suspicious-taking a look arrangement. The NSA did offer some boilerplate about "powerful internal controls," however simultaneously stiff-armed Buzzfeed's request for Teresa Shea's monetary disclosure statements, citing the National Security Act of 1959. (This citation is also company boilerplate, or at least was until Jason Leopold challenged it with a lawsuit. This move forced former NSA head Keith Alexander's monetary disclosure statements out of its arms. In gentle of this latest decision, it seems Shea's statements will be released as smartly.)
This all regarded conflicted sufficient, but Roston has uncovered more suspicious- having a look information.
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