Fokker F27 Friendship variant
Fokker F27 Friendship Fairchild Hiller FH-227
A 1.83 m stretch developed independently by Fairchild Hiller, seating 56 as standard. It beat Fokker's F27-500 by almost two years. 78 built.
- 78
- Units built
- 1,056 km
- Range
- 56
- Passengers
History
An American stretch
The FH-227 was not a licence version but Fairchild Hiller's own development: it stretched the F-27 fuselage by 1.83 m, raised standard seating to 56 and enlarged the cargo area between the flight deck and the cabin. It appeared almost two years before the F27-500, the equivalent stretch Fokker developed in the Netherlands.
Figures and service
The FH-227E, the version documented in Jane's, measured 25.50 m long by 29.01 m in span, weighed 10,398 kg empty and took off at 19,731 kg. It cruised economically at 430 km/h and reached 1,056 km with maximum payload. Delta Air Lines, Mohawk Airlines, Northeast Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines and Wien Air Alaska operated it.
Longevity
Seventy-eight were built. By February 2010 only one remained in active service: FH-227E serial number 501 of the Myanmar Air Force.