AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 217 / 278

Plate 217 of 278 · Cold War · Short-haul turboprop airliner

Fokker F27 Friendship

F27 Friendship, G-BHMY, painted as G-BHMY, constructor’s number 10196, a Fokker F27 Friendship built at Schiphol in 1962 and flown by Air UK from Norwich until it was given to the City of Norwich Aviation Museum in 2000: the high-wing twin turboprop airliner Fokker designed in the early 1950s as a successor to the DC-3, with two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops in slim underwing nacelles that also house the main undercarriage, four-bladed Dowty Rotol propellers, a pressurised circular fuselage with oval cabin windows, a tall swept fin with a long dorsal fillet, dihedral tailplane and a tricycle undercarriage: white fuselage with Air UK’s late cheat line of dark blue and light blue under the windows, a dark blue fin and rear fuselage carrying the airline’s streaming Union flag, dark blue ‘AirUK’ titles and a Royal Mail badge behind the cockpit, ‘G-BHMY’ on the rear fuselage and under the port wing, a black radome and black de-icing boots, as photographed at Norwich between 2008 and 2023 (shape from a de-stretched F27-500 three-view checked against the standard-length profiles and solved camera matches of the museum’s photographs); it stands for the F27 family, which the museum also represents with the fuselage of G-BCDN and the cockpit of G-BDVS.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-BHMY, constructor’s number 10196, a Fokker F27 Friendship built at Schiphol in 1962 and flown by Air UK from Norwich until it was given to the City of Norwich Aviation Museum in 2000: the high-wing twin turboprop airliner Fokker designed in the early 1950s as a successor to the DC-3, with two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops in slim underwing nacelles that also house the main undercarriage, four-bladed Dowty Rotol propellers, a pressurised circular fuselage with oval cabin windows, a tall swept fin with a long dorsal fillet, dihedral tailplane and a tricycle undercarriage: white fuselage with Air UK’s late cheat line of dark blue and light blue under the windows, a dark blue fin and rear fuselage carrying the airline’s streaming Union flag, dark blue ‘AirUK’ titles and a Royal Mail badge behind the cockpit, ‘G-BHMY’ on the rear fuselage and under the port wing, a black radome and black de-icing boots, as photographed at Norwich between 2008 and 2023 (shape from a de-stretched F27-500 three-view checked against the standard-length profiles and solved camera matches of the museum’s photographs); it stands for the F27 family, which the museum also represents with the fuselage of G-BCDN and the cockpit of G-BDVS. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.7 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (F27-200, F27-600); engine, crew and dimensions are for the F27 Friendship, G-BHMY modelled here.

History

The F27 Friendship

After the Second World War Fokker set out to build the airliner that would replace the DC-3 on short routes. Its design study, the P.275, became a high-winged twin with a pressurised, circular fuselage and two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops, the engine already proven on the Viscount. The high wing kept the propellers clear of rough runways, gave every passenger a view downwards and let the cabin sit low enough to load without steps. With backing from the Dutch government, the prototype PH-NIV first flew from Schiphol on 24 November 1955.

Fairchild in the United States took a licence before the first production aircraft flew, and its F-27 entered service with West Coast Airlines in September 1958, a few months before Aer Lingus began flying Dutch-built F27s that December. The Mk 200 brought more powerful Darts, and later marks added a large forward cargo door (Mk 400 and Mk 600), a 1.5 m longer fuselage (Mk 500), and military transport and maritime patrol versions. Fairchild also built its own stretched FH-227.

Production at Schiphol ran until 1986, and with Fairchild’s 206 nearly 800 F27s were built, making it the best-selling Western turboprop airliner of its generation; its successor, the Fokker 50, kept the same layout. In Britain the F27 was the backbone of Air Anglia at Norwich and of Air UK, formed from Air Anglia and three other regional airlines in 1980, which flew it on scheduled routes and on the Royal Mail’s night mail flights.

This airframe

Fokker F27 Friendship G-BHMY

G-BHMYThe airframe modelled

G-BHMY, constructor’s number 10196, was built at Schiphol in 1962 and ended its flying career with Air UK, whose home was Norwich Airport, the former RAF Horsham St Faith. Some records call it an F27-600, others an F27-200; externally it has the small forward passenger door of the Mk 200, without the Mk 600’s large cargo door. After the airport’s 60th anniversary air show in 2000 it joined the City of Norwich Aviation Museum next to the airfield, and its registration was cancelled in 2003. The model shows it as photographed at the museum between 2008 and 2023, standing level on its tricycle undercarriage, in Air UK’s late scheme: a white fuselage with dark blue and light blue cheat lines, a dark blue fin and rear fuselage carrying the airline’s streaming Union flag, dark blue ‘AirUK’ titles and a Royal Mail badge behind the cockpit, ‘G-BHMY’ on the rear fuselage and under the port wing, a black radome and black de-icing boots. Its shape comes from a three-view of the stretched Mk 500, shortened by Fokker’s own 1.5 m split and checked against standard-length side views and photographs of G-BHMY. The museum also holds the fuselage of G-BCDN and the cockpit of G-BDVS.

See it at City of Norwich Aviation Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the F27 Friendship in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 278 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.