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Fokker 100

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Template:Infobox Aircraft The Fokker F100 is a small twin-turbofan regional airliner from the Fokker company. Low operational costs and almost no modern competition in the 100-seat short-range class made it a best seller when it was introduced in the late 1980s, but improved models of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A319 and 318 squeezed it into a niche and Fokker was soon insolvent. Production ended in 1997 with 283 airframes delivered.

History

The F100 design was announced in 1983 as an updated replacement for Fokker's popular, but outdated, F28 Fellowship design. The most noticeable difference was the much longer fuselage, which almost doubled the seating from 65 in the original F28 series to 107 in a three-by-two single-class arrangement. Fokker also introduced a redesigned wing for the F100, which they claimed was 30% more efficient in cruise. The engines were upgraded to the modern Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans, while the cockpit was updated with an all-glass instrumentation package.

Two prototypes were built. The first, PH-MKH, flew for the first time on November 30, 1986, and the second, PH-MKC, followed on February 25, 1987. The type certificate was awarded in November 1987. Testing went smoothly and the first deliveries of the Tay 650-15 powered versions started to Swissair in February 1988. American Airlines (75 planes ordered), TAM (50 planes) and US Airways (40 planes) were major costumers of the F100.

The engines are attached to the sides of the fuselage near the tail rather than the more common location on the wing.

By 1991, Fokker had already produced 70 units and had orders for a total of more than 230. An extended range version with additional fuel tanks in the wings was introduced in 1993, and a quick-change passenger/freighter version in 1994, the F100QC. A shorter version was introduced in 1993 as a direct replacement for the earlier F28, known as the Fokker 70, which removed 4.70 m of the fuselage and reduced seating to 80. Studies on the 130 seat F130 and the Fokker 100QC (freighter) did not reach further stages of development. A Fokker 100EJ (Executive Jet) has been introduced in 2003 as a conversion from used Fokker 100 aircraft.

Although the design was a success in the marketplace, Fokker continued to lose massive amounts of money due to mismanagement. Eventually their parent company, Daimler Benz Aerospace, gave up and shut them down. Fokker collapsed financially in 1996, and wound up production in early 1997. There had been some discussion about the company being purchased by Bombardier, but the plans fell through. This is particularly ironic given that Bombardier is currently scrambling to produce a new 130 seat design to compete with Embraer's latest aircraft (in 2004).

An Amsterdam-based group, Rekkof Restart (Rekkof is Fokker spelled backwards) started negotiating to re-open the Fokker 70 and F100 lines in 1999, but the deal never completed. But there are still talking about the possibility to re-open the Fokker 70 production line. Like any number of designs, the F70/F100 was being increasingly squeezed from below by stretched versions of the Bombardier and Embraer regional jets, which also killed off plans for the Fairchild JET and an unnamed design from ATR.

Success Stories

File:Fokker-100 Jetairfly OO-TUF.jpg
A Jetairfly Fokker F100
File:Flight West F100.jpg
A Flight West Fokker F100

Mexican low-cost airline Click Mexicana expressed in September 2005 that it got six percent of the domestic market after less than three months in operation. According to the Chief Executive of Click Mexicana this was partly because its ten Fokker 100 jets are modern and fuel-efficient.

Crashes and Incidents

  • On 5 March 1993, the pilot of a Palair Macedonian Airlines F100 lost control and crashed near Skopje, Macedonia, in an early climb due to icing. Four of the six crew and 77 of the 91 passengers were killed.
  • In 1996, a problem in a thrust reverser caused one F100 of the Brazilian airline TAM to crash in São Paulo shortly after take-off, killing 95 and 4 on the ground.
  • In 1997, an unexplained explosion fatally blew a passenger out of a TAM Fokker 100 during flight.
  • In 2001, two cabin windows shattered on a TAM Fokker 100 due to an engine breakup, and the resulting depressurization killed one of the 82 passengers on board.
  • On August 8, 2006, a front door of a TAM flight came off a few minutes after takeoff at the Congonhas International Airport, in São Paulo, Brazil. The accident had no serious repercussions, since the cabin had not been pressurized yet and the pilot was able to circle back and land at Congonhas again. The door fell approximately 450 meters (1,470 feet) and collapsed on the roof of a supermarket, causing no major damage.

Specifications

General characteristics

  • Wing span: 28.8 m
  • Horizontal stabilizer span: 10.04 m
  • Overall Length: 35.3 m
  • Overall Height: 8.6 m
  • Fuselage diameter: 3.30 m
  • Gross weight: 44.5 tonnes
  • Engines: 2x Rolls-Royce Tay Mk. 650-15, 15,100 lbf (67 kN) thrust
  • Passenger capacity: 85 to 122, 107 typical
  • Crew: 2 flight crew, 2 to 3 cabin crew

Performance

  • Maximum altitude: 37,000 ft (11,300 m)
  • Speed (long range cruise): 755 km/h (0.72 Mach)
  • Speed (high speed cruise): 845 km/h (0.77 Mach)
  • Range: 4,300 km (4,750 km in the ER versions)

Current Operators

See also

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