FOKKER 50

The Fokker 50 was developed during the early 1980s following a decline in the sales of the company’s earlier F27 Friendship. It was decided that the new airliner would be a derivative of its predecessor, sharing much of its airframe and design features, while incorporating new advances and several improvements, such as the adoption of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127B turboprop engines, in order to produce a successor that had a 30 per cent reduction in fuel consumption over the F27.

By the early 1980s, the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, had identified that sales of the Fokker F27 Friendship, a turboprop-powered airliner which had been in continual production since 1958, were beginning to decline. Accordingly, the company decided to conduct a series of design studies for follow-up products to the key elements of their existing product line, these being the centered around the F27 and the Fokker F28 Fellowship jet airliner. In November 1983, Fokker decided to commence simultaneous work on two development projects to develop a pair of new airliners – these being the Fokker 100, which was to succeed the F28, and the Fokker 50, which was the successor to the F27. The Fokker 50 programme suffered some delays, leading to the first aircraft being delivered more than a year following the final F27 delivery.

The Fokker 50 was basically an amalgamation of various refinements and improvements which had been made to the design of the F27 Friendship. As a result of these modifications, such as the adoption of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127B turboprop engines, Fokker was able to progressively reduce the F27’s fuel consumption by 30 per cent. Various different propeller designs were adopted over timespan of the aircraft’s production, while an increasing proportion of composite materials were used in the airframe, adjustments to the wing design, and a higher degree of cockpit automation were areas of major advances of the Fokker 50 over its predecessor.

Fokker partnered with several companies to manufacture portions of the Fokker 50; these included the wing being produced by Belgian aerospace firm SABCA, fuselage sections made by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, flaps and other components manufactured by German aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), and vertical stabilizers and horizontal stabilizers built by Japanese multinational corporation Fuji Heavy Industries. A pair of prototypes, derived from F27 airframes, were produced; on 28 December 1985, the first of these prototypes performed its maiden flight. In 1987, certification of the Fokker 50 by the Dutch aviation authority RLD was successfully completed, and the first production aircraft was subsequently delivered.

During 1994, Fokker had been incurring sizable losses on its operations, which led to cuts in the output of the Fokker 50 and threatened its long term viability. During early 1995, the firm embarked upon a major restructuring programme, including efforts to renegotiate prices with its suppliers, in what was viewed by aerospace publication Flight International as a last-ditch effort to save the company in its current form. By July 1995, Fokker was in negotiations with the Dutch government over the terms for a potential bailout of the company as losses continued to mount.

In March 1996, production of the Fokker 50 was terminated as a consequence of Fokker itself having been forced into a state of bankruptcy. The financial difficulties suffered by the firm had been in part caused by the massive cost overruns which had been incurred on both the Fokker 50 and Fokker 100, as well as due to intense competition within the regional airliner sector that Fokker had designed and marketed these aircraft towards, which had not been helped by delays to the program in the face of multiple modern competitors in the form of the Saab 340, ATR 42 and Bombardier Dash 8.

During 1997, as a result of the company having entered into liquidation, the final Fokker 50 aircraft was delivered that year. By the end of the program, a total of 213 Fokker 50s had been completed. As early as May 1996, proposals for the partial or complete restart of production of the type were mooted, amongst these being interest from Indian aerospace firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in establishing a Fokker 50 assembly line in India, however these did not come about.

Aircraft of similar role, configuration and era are: Antonov An-140, ATR 42 and 72, CASA CN-235 and EADS CASA C-295, de Havilland Canada Dash 8 Series 300, Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, Fairchild-Dornier 328 family, Ilyushin Il-114, Saab 2000 and 340, Xian MA60/Xian Y-7/Antonov An-24.