Fokker F27 Friendship F27-500

The F27-500 stretched the fuselage by 1.5 m to 25.06 m, reverted to the Dart Mk 528 engine and raised capacity to 52 passengers. It first flew in November 1967, a decade after the -100 entered service, and was Fokker's answer to the FH-227 that Fairchild had independently developed in the United States almost two years earlier.

The -500 spawned the -500M military transport and the -500F, a version for Australia with smaller forward and rear doors. The stretched airframe was also the starting point for the F27 Mark 050 — the Fokker 50 — with which Fokker replaced the Friendship in production in the mid-1980s.

The -500 was the version that lasted longest: in July 2013, of the 25 Friendships still flying worldwide most were -500s. Its combination of a long cabin and short-field performance made it particularly useful in regional and cargo operations.