Fokker F.VII variant
Fokker F.VII F.VII
Original single-engined version designed by Walter Rethel for KLM, with two crew and six passengers. Five built.
- 5
- Units built
- 8
- Passengers
History
The single-engined F.VII
The F.VII began as a single-engined transport designed by Walter Rethel. Five were built for KLM, powered by a 360 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle or a 450 hp Napier Lion, seating two crew and six passengers. One was later converted to a 400 hp Bristol Jupiter and two others to 480 hp Gnome-Rhône-built Jupiter VIs.
The flight to the East Indies
The aircraft registered H-NACC made the first flight from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies in 1924, the imperial route KLM would later turn into its most emblematic long-haul service. That flight gave the F.VII a reputation its trimotor successor would exploit to the full.
Origin of a family
Everything else derived from the single-engined F.VII: the F.VIIa improved the undercarriage and wing, and from an F.VIIa converted to three engines came the F.VIIa/3m, the aircraft that would dominate air transport on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1920s.