Fokker F.VII variant
Fokker F.VII F.VIIa/3m
First trimotor version, with two additional underwing engines. It flew on 4 September 1925 and won that year's Ford Reliability Tour.
- September 4, 1925
- First flight
- 18
- Units built
- 8
- Passengers
History
Three engines for reliability
In 1925, while living in the United States, Anthony Fokker heard of the inaugural Ford Reliability Tour, a competition for transport aircraft. He had the company's chief designer, Reinhold Platz, convert a single-engined F.VIIa to trimotor configuration with three 200 hp Wright Whirlwinds. The result, the F.VIIa/3m, flew on 4 September 1925 and, shipped to the United States, won the Ford Reliability Tour late that year.
Construction and evolution
The first two aircraft were otherwise identical to the F.VIIa. From the third the fuselage was lengthened by 80 cm. The structure was characteristically Fokker: a fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and a plywood-skinned wooden wing. Probably only eighteen were built new, but many F.VIIas were upgraded to trimotor standard.
The flight of the Josephine Ford
On 9 May 1926 Richard E. Byrd claimed to have flown over the North Pole in the F.VIIa/3m Josephine Ford (N267), a few days before Roald Amundsen accomplished the feat in the airship Norge. The aircraft remains one of the most celebrated machines in polar exploration.