Fokker F.VII F-10

The F-10 was the enlarged development of the F.VII built in the late 1920s by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. It carried twelve passengers — four more than the F.VII — in an enclosed cabin, with a larger wing and more powerful engines: three 425 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasps. It measured 15.44 m long by 21.69 m in span and weighed 5,216 kg loaded. Sixty-five were built for commercial and military use. The improved F-10A, seating fourteen with 420 hp Wasps, was popularly known as the Super Trimotor.

On 31 March 1931 a Transcontinental & Western Air F-10 crashed, killing all eight aboard, among them Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. The cause was deterioration of the wooden wing spar. The type was temporarily grounded and subjected to more frequent and rigorous inspection.

The blow to the aircraft's reputation, and to plywood construction in general, was decisive: it accelerated the type's early retirement from US airlines and the shift to all-metal aircraft, from the Ford Trimotor to the Boeing 247 and the Douglas DC-2. Rarely has a single accident redirected an industry so sharply.