Fokker F.VII variant
Fokker F.VII F.VIIb/3m
Main production version, with greater span, modified wing geometry and heavier engines. 154 built, including licence production.
- 154
- Units built
- 1,200 km
- Range
- 8
- Passengers
History
The definitive Trimotor
The F.VIIb/3m was the main production version and the aircraft the public knew as the 'Fokker Trimotor'. Over the F.VIIa/3m it increased span and modified the wing geometry, and offered heavier engines: 300 hp Wright Whirlwind, Armstrong Siddeley Lynx or 360 hp Titan Major. A total of 154 were built counting those made under licence in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Figures
It measured 14.50 m long by 21.71 m in span, weighed 3,100 kg empty and 5,300 kg loaded, reached 210 km/h maximum and 178 km/h cruising, with 1,200 km of range and a 4,400 m ceiling; it carried two crew and eight passengers.
The great flights
The F.VIIb/3m starred in two of the most celebrated crossings in history. Charles Kingsford Smith's Southern Cross was the first aircraft to cross the Pacific from the United States to Australia, in June 1928, and the first to cross the Tasman Sea and return, in September that year. On 17 June 1928 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, as a passenger aboard the F.VIIb/3m Friendship (NX4204).