The Fokker F50 was a small turboprop-powered airliner designed as a refinement of and successor to the highly successful Fokker Friendship.

Sales of the Fokker F-27 "Friendship", which had been continually in production since 1958, was beginning to decline by the 1980's. Fokker management, notably Frans Swarttouw , decided, that an aeronautical and electronic update of both the F-27 and the F-28 (the short-range twin jet for ca 85 passengers) were in order. Design started in 1983.

The F50, as the new design was called for marketing reasons, was based on the stretched F-27-500, but with a larger number of smaller windows in the fuselage and a two-wheel nose gear. Basic construction of the fuselage, wings and empennage (tail) remained unchanged apart from local strenghthening where needed. The wing was equiped with upturned aileron- and wingtips, acting more or less as wing endplates or winglets.

The major design change was in the engines and in equiping the aircraft with an electronic flight- and engine-management system. The original Rolls-Royce Darts in various marks of basically 1700 to 2300 HP was replaced with two fuel efficient Pratt and Whitney Canada PW124 of max 2500 HP, driving a 6 bladed Dowty Rotol propeller. Around 50 passengers can be carried over 2000 km at a typical speed of 530 km/h, a 50 km/h increase over the F-27. Certification of the F50 (official name: F-27 Mk050) by the Dutch aviation authority RLD was succesfully completed in 1987 after four years of design review and flight testing and first delivery was made to DLT of Germany. In 1996 production ended with the demise of the Fokker Aircraft Company, after 213 F50's (and 768 F-27's) had been produced. Most of these are still in operation at the beginning of 2005.

Specifications (F50 series 100)

General Characteristics

• Crew: two pilots
• Capacity: up to 58 passengers
• Length: 25.25 m (82 ft 10 in)
• Wingspan: 29.00 m (95 ft 2 in)
• Height: 8.32 m (27 ft 4 in)
• Wing area: 70.0 m² (736 ft²)
• Empty: 12,250 kg (27,602 lb)
• Loaded: kg ( lb)
• Maximum takeoff: 19,950 kg (43,980 lb)
• Powerplant: 2x Pratt & Whitney Canada PW125 B turboprops, 1,864 kW (2,500 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: km/h ( mph)
• Range: 2,055 km (1,284 miles)
• Service ceiling: 7,620 m (25,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: m/min ( ft/min)
• Wing loading: kg/m² ( lb/ft²)
• Power/Mass: kW/kg ( hp/lb)

Related content

Related development: Fokker Friendship - Fokker 60 - Fokker F100

Comparable aircraft:

Designation sequence: